MORGANTOWN — When you hear someone’s story, you begin to love them.
That’s from Fred Rogers, who was known as “Mister Rogers” during his celebrated run as a children’s show host on public television.
It’s also the paraphrased quote that author, illustrator and WVU professor Eve Faulkes used in the introduction of her book detailing the lives and times of Black West Virginians, many from the Morgantown area, who were part of the country’s fight for racial equality in the 1960s.
And now, her graphic novel-styled work, “West Virginians’ Experiences in Civil Rights: How We Have Been Connected All Along,” is receiving national recognition.
Faulkes’ book was produced with the help of the Community Coalition for Social Justice, which just received a “Leadership in History” award for the project from the American Association for State and Local History.
The association is an advocacy group based in Nashville that regularly chronicles the country’s past and present.
All the illustrations in the 132-page book are courtesy of Faulkes, a WVU design professor.
The book’s profiles were edited by Faulkes’ university colleague Barbara Howe, a professor emerita known for work in public history and women’s issues; and Georgia-born Joan C. Browning, an author and former Freedom Rider now living in Greenbrier County.
Former mayor of Morgantown Charlene Marshall is among the people featured in the book – along with Al Anderson, the community activist and rock ‘ n’ roll soul singer who was in attendance on the Washington Mall during Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.
Howe, meanwhile, said she appreciates that the announcement was made right before Thursday’s observances of Juneteenth, honoring the events of June 19, 1865 – when 250,000 Blacks in Texas were notified they were free of their enslavement.
Friday marks the 162nd birthday of West Virginia, the only state in the Union born of the Civil War.
