Events are typically updated at the beginning of each month. See also Local News, Regional News, and Calendar
Our monthly meetings are held via Zoom at present and generally occur every third Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 16th at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom. All are welcome. Zoom information to be provided.
Mike Attfield has prepared our comments to Morgantown City Council members stating our support for the proposed ban on conversion therapy. See here under Human Rights Commission for details and to learn how you can support this effort.
We plan to be at this event on October 23rd. See here under Morgantown Pride for details of the event.
The CCSJ Annual Meeting took place on September 8th at 7:30 p.m. A video recording of the event is here.
We are pleased that Eve Faulkes agreed to be our speaker for our annual meeting. She discussed her forthcoming book entitled Preserving the Stories of Scotts Run, West Virginia: A Ten-Year Partnership From 2011 to 2021 that reflects the work that she and her students have done to celebrate the history of Scotts Run. This book was made possible through a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This was a Zoom presentation that was recorded and will be placed for our website shortly.
Eve is a WVU professor emerita of design, where she taught graphic design with a focus on social justice. The photo above is from the WVU announcement of her new Eve Faulkes Justice Through Design Endowment. More information about that can be found here.
Preserving the Stories of Scotts Run is available for a donation of $25 at the Scotts Run Museum and Trail at 465 Scotts Run Road in Osage. The museum is open on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and by appointment by calling Mary Jane Coulter at 304-599-9615. The Museum and Trail is a 501 (c) (3) organization. Or call Eve at 304-692-1116.
Prior to Eve’s presentation, we had a short business meeting and election of steering committee members. CCSJ members were eligible to vote. Our by-laws provide for a steering committee of 8-12 members, and the following current members were elected for three-year terms: Al Anderson, Mike Attfield, Susan Brown, Judy Cohen, Laura Cohen, Tim Hairston, Barb Howe, Sandra Nelms, Sheila Rye, and Mike Sharley. Of these, the following were elected as offiers: Mike Attfield (chair), Al Anderson (vice-chair), Sheila Rye (secretary), and Barb Howe (treasurer).
The Morgantown/Kingwood Branch of the NAACP was looking for groups committed to social justice in Morgantown to be intervenors on behalf of the City of Morgantown in the lawsuit that the Fraternal Order of Police brought against the City as a result of city council passing the ordinance establishing this board. The CCSJ steering committee immediately approved our being involved. If Judge Susan Tucker accepts our motion to intervene, we will be kept apprised of the developments in this case. We appreciate the assistance of Bob Cohen and Bob Bastress in facilitating this process and are now waiting to see if this motion will be approved.
We have decided to again hold this event via Zoom on January 17th in cooperation with the WVU Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) because of concerns about COVID-19. We have received an allocation of $1500 from the City of Morgantown to reimburse us for expenses. If you have ideas for the program, please send them to ccsjwv@hotmail.com.
For several years, the City of Morgantown provided funds for us to purchase library books focused on social justice issues for the Morgantown Public Library on Spruce Street. With funds from the Appalachian Community Foundation, we also purchased books for the Clinton District and Clay-Battelle Branch Libraries. Most of these are books for children. The library has added some of these at the Arnettsville branch.
The lists for have been updated and are available now here. There are two lists. One is exclusively books focused on African Americans. The other list includes our former environmental justice and economic justice lists. There is an index on page 3 of the “catalog” that includes links to the various topics so that you can easily find something that might interest you.The library is now open enough that people can order books and pick them up curbside. For more information on this procedure, please go here.
Please send your web site suggestions to Mike Attfield at mdattfieldo@gmail.com. Please contact any of the steering committee members to volunteer to help and to share your suggestions for our work or e-mail us at ccsjwv@hotmail.com. Please send items to share with our membership to Barb Howe at barbara.howe@mail.wvu.edu.
Please also remember to send your dues - $10 for individuals and $25 for organizations – to CCSJ, PO Box 160, Morgantown, WV 26507-0160. You can join or donate by credit card via PayPal on this web site. Go to Join Us.