The moderate one mile guided hike will begin with a tour of the ATC’s Visitor Center and end by following the Appalachian Trail downhill past numerous scenic spots and historic structures. At each historic site, a Harpers Ferry Park ranger will give an interpretive presentation about its significance.

Participants will learn about Storer College, one of the nation’s first institutions of higher learning open to African Americans. They will be given the rare opportunity to view the inside the Curtis Freewill Baptist Church and the Lockwood House, where the college’s first classes took place. Attendees will also learn about the Niagara Movement, considered to be the cornerstone of the modern civil rights era, and John Brown’s Raid, which focused the nation’s attention on the moral issue of slavery and headed the country toward civil war.

Kweli Kitwana, A.T. Ambassador to Bolivar and Harpers Ferry, will lead the hike, along with longtime Harpers Ferry Park rangers and historians David Fox and Guinevere Roper.

“I am so excited to take people out on the Appalachian Trail to celebrate National Trails Day, as well as to share with them the historical significance of landmarks along this section of the A.T. that played a pivotal role in our nation’s history,” said Kitwana.

At the end of the hike, participants will have the opportunity to hear a presentation from Marcia Fairweather about her 15-year section-hike of the A.T. Ms. Fairweather is also a board member of the ATC.

This hike is not recommended for children under eight years old. Parental supervision required. RSVP encouraged to chobbs@appalachiantrail.org by June 1st. For more information, contact Laurie Potteiger at 304-535-2200 ext. 128 or lpotteiger@appalachiantrail.org.

Hike Difficulty: Moderate; the hike is one mile long and short sections cover uneven terrain and rocks, as well as steep steps.

EVENT OVERVIEW:
When: Saturday, June 2, 2012 – 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Where: Appalachian Trail Conservancy
799 Washington Street, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

10:30 a.m. – Orientation: Hike participants meet at the ATC’s Visitor Center to sign in.

11:00 a.m. – African American History Hike: The one mile guided hike will begin at the ATC’s Visitor Center and end in historic Lower Town Harpers Ferry.

1:00 p.m. – Lunch: Lunch will be provided for hike participants.

1:30 p.m. – “Marcia’s Appalachian Trail Journey”: After lunch, Marcia Fairweather, who completed a section-hike of the entire A.T. in 2008, will show a short video about her experience. Both lunch and the presentation will be held in the Allies for Freedom room on the second floor of the HFNHP’s John Brown Museum in historic Lower Town Harpers Ferry.

About the Appalachian Trail Conservancy
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy mission is to preserve and manage the Appalachian Trail – ensuring that its vast natural beauty and priceless cultural heritage can be shared and enjoyed today, tomorrow, and for centuries to come. For more information please visit www.appalachiantrail.org.

Contact: Javier Folgar
Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Tel: (304) 535-2200 ext. 117
Fax: 304.535.2667
Email: jfolgar@appalachiantrail.org
Web: www.appalachiantrail.org

PM Taylor briefly addressed the Board and was accompanied by Society members Rutherford and Tolbert.  Star Lodge and the new MRD OLC are separated by Avis Street.  John Avis and Martin Delany were boyhood friends.  Jailer John Avis transported John Brown to his execution site in December 1859.  Delany was born on May 6, 1812, in Charles Town,VA (now WV).  Virginia  prohibited Blacks from learning to read and write.  Young Martin’s family violated this “law” by learning to read and write.  After officials learned that the Delany family had violated this “law”, his mother moved the children to Chambersburg, PA.  Delany went on to attend Harvard Medical School, co-edited the “North Star” newspaper with Frederick Douglass, and was commissioned a Major in the U.S. Army in the Civil War by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, on the recommendation of President Abraham Lincoln.   The Society will be working with school officials  in planning a new sign unveiling ceremony in early May.

Several other events have been planned this year to celebrate Delany’s 200th birthday.  PGM Rutherford heads this birthday planning committee.  Serving on the committee are PGM Harold Stewart, Star Lodge#1 PM Maurice Ballard and PGM Tolbert.  Star Lodge plans a birthday observance and a MRD Golf Tournament on May 18.

Date                       February 29, 2012 -Wednesday

Activity                 Martin Delany Essay/Media Contest

8^th and 10^th grade students invited to submit either an essay or media project (music recording, video) on the life of Delany.  $75.00 awards to two 8^th grade entries and two 10^th grade entries.

Contact James Surkamp @ 261-7911 or Antoinette Ringgold @ 304-728-6576

Date                       May 3, 2012 -  Thursday

Activity                 County Proclamation

At the regular Jefferson  County Commission meeting the Commission will  issue a proclamation recognizing and endorsing the Martin Delany Commemoration Celebration.

Date                       May 5, 2012 – Saturday   2-4pm

Activity                 Forum – Delany’s early years, life in Charles Town

A discussion on the life of Delany in Charles Town before his family was force to flee to Chambersburg, PA

Location               Fishermen Hall    340 South West Street, Charles Town, WV

Date                       May 6, 2012 – Sunday   3pm

Activity                 Delany Birthday Party (200 years)

The official Delany 200^th Anniversary  birthday cake will be cut. Local, county and state officials will be invited to participate along with any descendants. The Martin Delany Essay/Media Contest winners will be announced. Party is free and open to the public.

Location               Star Lodge #1 Masonic  Hall    240 S. Lawrence St. (Delany Place), Charles Town, WV

Contact Maurice Ballard @ 304-820-6236

Date                       May 18, 2012 – Friday 7pm

Activity                 Martin Delany(History Alive)

Joe Bundy will present his History Alive presentation of Martin Delany, followed by a question and answer session. Bundy will also give his presentation at one of local school during the day.

Location               Fishermen Hall also at one of the local school during the afternoon.

Contact James Tolbert @ 304-725-7852

Date                       May 18, 2012 – Friday 8am            

Activity                 The 1^st Annual Martin R. Delany’s  Scholarship Golf Tourney

                                Profit from the tourney will be used to fund the Martin R. Delany’s  Scholarship Fund

Location               Locust Hill Golf Club  -  Charles Town, WV

Contact Maurice Ballard 304-820-6236 or   

Date                       May 18, 2012 – Monday 7pm

Activity                 Forum – Delany life between leaving Charles Town (1822) and the beginning of the Civil War (1861). Relationship with Frederick Douglass and John Brown. His role as an author and editor.

Location               CT Library Lower level

Contact James Surkamp @  304- 261-7911

Date                        TBA

Activity                 Delany’s Room Dedication

The American Public University System(APUS)will dedicate a room in honor of Delany at the APUS building at North George Street in Charles Town, WV

Contact John Hough

Date                       August 17, 2012 – Friday  6pm

Activity                 Descendants’ reception and birthday party

Location               County grounds, Corner of East Washington & North Samuel St. Charles Town

Contact Lyn Widmyer (304- ******* )

Date                       August 17 -19, 2012

Activity                 20^th Annual African American Culture & Heritage Festival

The festival is being dedicated in honor to Delany.  Descendants are invited to participate in the annual parade that will take place on Saturday at 12 noon which take place down the main street in Charles Town.  Educational, health, vendors, food, festive and other activities will take place at the festival ground located at 301 South Lawrence St. Charles Town.

Contact Warren Stewart 304-229-7248 

Date                       September 15, 2012 – Saturday

Activity                 Placing of historical markers

A wayside exhibit will be place near Delany’s birth site. A historical sign will be placed within the central city limit. This is part of the Annual Charles Town Heritage  Days activities                     

Location               The 200 block of West Liberty Street in Charles Town

Contact Doug Perks 304- 725-2208

Date                       September 17, 2012 – Monday 7pm

Activity                 Forum - Delany life during and after the Civil War 1861 – 1885

                                Will cover the Civil War, the reconstruction era, politics, masonic, death

Location               Star Lodge #1 (240 South Lawrence Street)

Contact James Taylor 304-725-7242

Date                       November 19, 2012-  Monday 7pm

Activity                 Film presentation  This is a film on the life of Delany that was produced by Jim Surkamp

Location               Fishermen Hall

Contact James Tolbert 304-725-7852

Jim Tolbert is a modestly quiet man, who, if it wasn’t for others who recognized his accomplishments, probably would not have been chosen for such a prestigious honor.

Tolbert, 78, of Charles Town, was presented with West Virginia University’s Martin Luther King Achievement Award.

A story in last week’s WVU News newspaper, written by reporter Diane Mazzella, said the university commemorated Martin Luther King Jr. Day “by honoring the man who, among his many achievements, fought to make the day a state holiday.”

Tolbert, who grew up and was educated in Jefferson County’s segregated black schools, served as president of the West Virginia NAACP for 21 years, through 2007. The award states that he was also recognized for his life’s work “furthering civil rights, humanitarianism and equality in West Virginia.”

Tolbert, in an interview Wednesday at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, the church he said he “grew up in,” remembered the days of segregation and Jim Crow laws in his hometown. He went through all 12 grades at Eagle Avenue Elementary School/Page-Jackson High School. He graduated in 1950. The building later burned down, he said.

He said even though his school and two others in Jefferson County — Shepherdstown Elementary and Harpers Ferry Elementary — were for blacks only, “I felt we all got good educations. Our teachers and administrators were all very dedicated.”

He enlisted in the Air Force and served four years, mostly in Japan. Discharged in 1954, he enrolled in West Virginia State College, now university, a name change that came about through Tolbert’s efforts. He graduated in 1958 with a degree in zoology and began a 30-year career with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 was supposed to end school segregation across the country. It came to Jefferson County a lot slower.

His Air Force hitch was ending when the court’s decision came down.

“I was still in Japan and I was naive,” Tolbert said. “I thought it (desegregation) would begin right away. People don’t know that it took us until 1966 in Jefferson County. That’s when they finally closed the black schools.”
 
He remembered how the Charles Town Civic League, a small local civil-rights group, and later the local NAACP branch, which organized in 1963, went to school board meetings for years asking the members to integrate the schools.

“They always refused,” he said. “They said they didn’t think the time was right, that they didn’t have to do it and that they weren’t going to.

“We weren’t satisfied,” Tolbert said. “Both of our organizations wrote to the federal government and they looked into our complaint. They told the school board to desegregate or lose federal funding. They closed the black schools then.”

He said none of the black administrators in the black schools was given a position in the newly integrated schools.

The replacement building for the Page-Jackson all-black high school is today the Jefferson County Board of Education headquarters; the black Shepherdstown Elementary School is now the Shepherdstown Day Care Center; and Harpers Ferry Elementary now belongs to the National Park Service, Tolbert said.

Tolbert said he successfully lobbied to get the name of his alma mater in Institute, W.Va., changed from West Virginia State College to West Virginia State University.

He accomplished that and pushed for the King holiday designation in the state by visiting all 16 NAACP branches around the state and encouraging their memberships to launch letter-writing campaigns to state legislators and the governor.

“I led the charge. That was my job as president,” he said.

“What people don’t realize is the role that Jim Tolbert played in the civil-rights movement in West Virginia,” said George Rutherford, president of the Jefferson County NAACP branch that nominated Tolbert for the award.

“Since the middle 1960s, he has been involved in, pushed or initiated every civil-rights bill that the state legislature passed.”

Rutherford said Tolbert was “directly responsible for getting African-Americans employed in positions that they were denied before the Civil Rights Act. He worked with the government to have funding withheld from the local municipalities because they were not in compliance with either federal or state civil-rights requirements.”

In 2006 and again in 2009, Tolbert was instrumental in getting U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd to direct $300,000 each for the commemorations of the founding of the Niagara Movement, the forerunner of the NAACP, and the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, Rutherford said.

Tolbert has received other recognition for his work in civil rights, including the T.G. Nutter, West Virginia Civil Rights Day and Governor’s Living Dream awards.