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Papers of Asa Philip Randolph, a prominent civil rights and labor leader, who founded and edited The Messenger, an influential black radical labor newspaper of the 1920s and who organized and presided over the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the only independent, viable black trade union in the American labor movement. Much of the correspondence deals with raising subscriptions for The Messenger, gaining an International Charter as an independent affiliate to the American Federation of Labor and the early organizing strike actions against the Pullman Company. This correspondence emphasizes the difficulties of convincing black workers of the feasibility of an independent fledgling black trade union; the necessity of organizing black workers for the benefit of the whole labor movement; and the challenge of maintaining jurisdictional independence from competing trade unions with predominantly white membership, such as the Hotel Workers union. These letters also reflect Randolph's desire to attain full civil rights for blacks.

Papers, photographs and maps of a wealthy Morgantown family with interests in real estate and coal mining. Most of the business papers are those of J. M. G. Brown, a West Virginia University law school alumnus, who was president of Scotts Run Fuel Corporation. Brown was also a housing developer whose company, Suburban Real Estate of Morgantown, was a competitive concern not only locally but throughout north central West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania. There are papers indicating his attempts to open Morgantown to airline service. His sister, Mary Virginia Brown was a genealogist and local historian noted for A History of the Negroes of Monongalia County. Among her papers are genealogies of the Bannister, Brown, Bushey, Dorsey, Suter and Williams families. There are also original documents of Colonel William McCleary, an early settler of Morgantown. There is also a manuscript "List of Taxable Property for 1786, Monongalia County," including five pages listing residents and their "tithables," horses, and cattle.

Correspondence, reports, statistics, maps, photographs and pamphlets related to the efforts in West Virginia of the early southern program of the General Education Board (GEB). The GEB, founded by John D. Rockefeller, is one of the most significant philanthropic efforts in the history of U.S. education particularly noted for its aid to African-American schools, teachers and students. In West Virginia it aided the African-American colleges of West Virginia State, a public institution and Storer, a privately supported school. For both colleges it was asked to fund building construction, equipment purchases and teachers salaries especially for vocational education and home economics. Mention is also made of conditions at Storer College and at other Negro colleges around the country. Other West Virginia schools aided were Bethany, Salem, Morris Harvey, West Virginia University, Davis & Elkins, and West Virginia Wesleyan. Aid was requested at these other West Virginia schools for endowments, salaries, building construction and purchases of equipment and books. There are also for these colleges selected balance sheets, resolutions, statistics, prospectuses and case studies. There is much material on vocational education, adult and extension courses, and surveys and statistics of libraries, schools and teachers on the secondary level in West Virginia supplied mainly by the West Virginia Department of Education. Other topics mentioned are expansion of secondary education in mining areas, establishment and maintenance of the West Virginia Division of Information and Statistics, the formation of the West Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges, the employment stabilization of life planning institutes and war activities of schools in both World War I and World War II. Names mentioned are D. B. Purinton, Frank B. Trotter, W. E. Hodges, J. N. Deahl, Wallace B. Fleming, George Rice Hovey, Cloyd Goodnight, Stephen B. Elkins, Henry D. Hatfield, Nat T. Frame, L. L. Friend and M. P. Shawkey.

The photographs and negatives of the Gerbrick Studio of Martinsburg whose most prominent proprietor was Jacob H. Gerbrick. There are group and individual portraits as well as pictures of business and industry, modes of transportation, schools, churches, residences, clubs and organizations, and social events. These photographs reflect life in Martinsburg and the extreme Eastern panhandle, including unique events such as strikes or floods, annual events such as festivals and parades, and everyday occurrences of the inhabitants. There are also images of the apple industry, Gerbrick family, Shepherd College, and Storer College.

Copies of correspondence and business records of Charles H. James, founder of the James Produce Company, one of the first totally black owned and managed businesses in West Virginia. Correspondents include: Governor J.J. Cornwell, John W. Davis, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Transcript of an interview by Richard Hadsell with Major W.P. Tams, Jr., former mine operator in the Winding Gulf coal mining region. Tams discusses his early days in coal mining, the opening of the Kanawha coal region, and coal operators and union officials such as: E.J. Berwind, Joe Beury, George Collins, Jarius Collins, Justus Collins, John J. Cornwell, Samuel Dixon, Elias Hatfield, Troy Hatfield, Isaac Mann, S.T. Patterson, J.A. Renahan, James O. Watts, and George Wolfe. Other individuals mentioned include: Henry D. Hatfield, John L. Lewis, John Mitchell, Fred Mooney, Bob Patterson, and "Mother" Mary Jones. Tams also discusses the Winding Gulf Collieries, the Beaver Coal Co., the Smokeless Coal Field, the N&W Railroad, the C&O Railroad, the Virginian Railroad, Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, unions and strikes, racial relations, blacks, scrip, company stores, Atwater, and Castner, Curran and Bullitt.

County and circuit clerks records, arranged chronologically. Records for the years 1835-1857, include bonds of ministers, tavern operators, ordinaries, ferries, and county officials; estate settlements; records pertaining to road, bridge, and public building; records of the overseer of the poor; school commissioners' and surveyors' appointments; and lists of county officials. Records for 1863-1874 include county supervisors' records; records of the Fairmont and Wheeling Turnpike; and muster certificates and reenlistment and bounty lists for the First, Second, Sixth, Seventh, Tenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiments, the First, Third, Fifth, Sixth West Virginia Cavalry, the First Light Artillery Regiment, and the Forty-fifth Regiment, United States Colored Troops. Papers for 1867-1907 include justice of the peace records, United States Admiralty Court records, and road surveyors' statements.

County court records concerning court cases and proceedings, as well as some public records, primarily tax, birth, death, and marriage records. There is also a large collection of private account books from various local businesses.