“I didn’t hear about racism in West Virginia growing up. In my classrooms in the 1990s, I  was taught to believe that slavery was not really practiced in West Virginia and the racial injustices that followed emancipation never occurred there either. When I didn’t see black people in rural West Virginia, my brain created a story to fill in the gaps, assuming that it was mere happenstance that I only saw white people living in Nicholas County.”

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“In studying the ways in which the social and political history surrounding my family helped them survive and thrive in the United States, I am deepening my understanding of who was provided opportunities, who was left out, and why. As I do this work, it motivates and informs my ongoing commitment to racial equity.”

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