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A6 SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 2014SATURDAY IN THE STARTHE WINCHESTER STARNAACPNAACP Winchester Area Branch 7127 members (from left) Tyson Gilpin, chairman of the Education Committee, Gwen Borders-Walker, president, and Darlene Walker, past secretary, pose for a portrait. The organization reactivated in 2009 after a 10-year hiatus and is hoping renewed interest in the chapter’s history will build membership. The local chapter meets at 10 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month in Highland Episcopal Church at 448 Highland Ave.Eight NAACP. workers pose for a portrait in St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church at 428 N. Loudoun St. in 1944 (seated, from left): Unidentified, William Brown, unidentified and Rosie Bartlett: (standing, from left) George Monroe, unidentified, Mary Laws and Alice Catlett. The Winchester Area chapter was chartered on Sept. 11,1944, according to records at the National Headquarters of the NAACP in Baltimore. The local chapter received handwritten documents found in the NAACP files at the Library of Congress and now is taking a closer look at the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives in Winchester’s Handley Library to learn more about the group’s history.Photo provided by the Stewart J. Beil Jr. Archives of the Handley LibraryCasey Turben, a Shenandoah University senior history and political science major, displays some of the information and documents he has researched about the 1944 trial of Howard Walker. The documents from the Library of Congress that first revealed the origins of Winchester branch of the NAACP were found by Turben as he was conducting a reseach project on Walker, a black man accused of raping a white woman in Winchester in the 1940s.from Page A1Knowing the local branch organized in the summer of 1944 and that it was officially chartered in September took everybody by surprise, Borders-Walker said.Chapter members knew it had a presence in the community before it was chartered on Sept. 9, 1974 — when it was reorganized — but they did not have any documentation to prove it.History and the truth open up all kinds of doors, she said. “That way we can advance. I am one of those people who believes if you don’t know your history, how are you going to set a path for your future?”In the fall, the chapter received handwritten documents found in the NAACP files at the Library of Congress dating to the group’s start in 1944 and now is taking a closer look at the Stewart Bell Jr. .Archives of the Handley Library in Winchester, Borders-Walker said.Moving forwardThe developments relating to the chapter’s history are still new and the current organization relatively young, having reactivated in 2009 after a 10-year hiatus, said Tyson Gilpin, chairman of the education committee.“What direction and what we are going to do next remains to be seen.However, he knows the members want to pursue the subject of the chapter’s history, possibly doing research through the national headquarters of the NAACP and the National Archives.The early consensus is that the group will mark the anniversary during its annual Freedom Fund Banquet in September, Borders-Walker said, although she does not have any detailed plans.The members are taking the extra time to learn as much as they can and possibly find more connections to those early years, she said, “to do it right.”One possibility is inviting the descendants of those early branch founders to honor their courage in a racially charged time, she said.“I think it is important as far as black history and the community. We weren’t just slaves. We were strong and smart. We have talents and can help make our community a strong community,” she said.Organizers want to find anyone who was alive at the time and remembers the chapter or documents from those early years that may have been passed down in family papers, Borders-Walker said.One of the challenges to keeping good records through the years has been a “lack of a consistent office space for the branch,” said Darlene Walker, 62, of Winchester.She joined the group in the 1990s and knows that it had office space on Boscawen Street around that time. Meetings were also held in private homes, churches, or other locations, she said.Part of the hope is that the renewed interest will help the branch to build its membership, which is about 70, Borders-Walker said.The local chapter meets at 10 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month int Highland Episcopal Church at 448 Highland Ave.The branch is also working to build an NAACP Youth program, and having a deeper history to share would be a good resource, Gilpin said.Part of a bigger pictureIn the early 1900s, a new wave of racial violence swept the country, erupting in a torrent of lynch-ings and race riots, said Mildred Roxborough, who worked for the NAACP national headquarters from 1954 to 1997 before retiring. She is now a consultant with the development program.The worst of the riots occurred in Springfield, 111., in 1908, when 3,000 black citizens fled the city. Its black section was destroyed and eight people were killed.This was a major catalyst that led to the founding on Feb. 12. 1909, of the NAACP throughout the country, she said. The first local chapter was founded in 1911 in New York and two more followed in Boston and Philadelphia several months later.The organization was trying to get legal redress and protection as black people were being executed with little or no evidence or even a trial, denied access to voting polls, discriminated against, brutalized and denied housing or employment, she said.By the early 1940s, the organization had about 1,500 adult and 600 youth and college branches in most of the 50 states and a membership of at least 300,000 nationwide, Roxborough said.“More often than not, a branch being started was an accumulation of concerns by black citizens about indignities that had been heaped upon them consistently,” said Roxborough of New York City. “People determined theywere tired of being mistreated, abused, beaten, and thrown in jail because they were not subservient enough.In time, “people reached a limit, which was a commonly shared attitude where the branches began to be chartered in the South, she said.Digging deeperThe documents from the Library of Congress that first revealed the Winchester branch’s origins were found by Casey Turben, a senior history and political science major at Shenandoah University.He was part of a research project tied to the university's production of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird” in November.The project was led by Dr. Warren Hofstra, professor of history at SU, and J J. Ruscella, director of acting, to add greater weight to the play’s performance by drawing connections to local history.Hofstra had heard about the case of Howard Walker, a black man in Winchester accused of raping a white woman and executed in the 1940s.Walker’s death drew comparisons to a fictional character in Harper Lee’s book, Tom Robinson, he said.His Virginia History class researched general history of segregation in the 1940s while Turben, as part of a independent study course, focused on Walker.New information was discussed during weekly Thursday meetings leading up to the play, Ruscella said. His cast members often attended to gain greater insight for their production of “Mockingbird.”Members of the community were also invited, including the NAACP, and Gilpin said he attended when possible and found the growing amount of information fascinating.Walker, 27, of Winchester was arrested and tried for raping a white woman in town the night of March 7,1944, said Turben, 25, of Winchester.He was convicted and sentenced to death, and when an appeal to save his life failed, he was electrocuted May 26 at the State Penitentiary in Richmond. “He went from accused to executed in just over 2xh months.”No documentation has been found that directly links the case to the formation of the local NAACP unit.1944 charter applicationThe first mention Turben found of the Winchester Area NAACP chapter was a letter to the national organization — dated June 24,1944 — in the Library of Congress, he said.The letter from M. Spottswood Brown of Winchester, who signed as the president, was a request for another application for a charter, since the one that had been sent had space for just 100 names.“We will need space for nearly 200 members to begin with, who have already paid their fee,” he wrote.Another document with the heading “Board of Directors” lists the names and addresses of 19 men and women in Winchester and Frederick and Clarke Counties. It was stamped July 13,1944.Paul Jones, 69, of Clarke County was not born when the branch was chartered, but he knew many of the people on the board. When Gilpin showed him the roster in the fall after it first was found, Jones noted that many of them were “prominent African-Americans in the community.“I think they were courageous people. They had a sense of need. They saw our area as one that needed help, he said. I guess in their minds there were things going on that were wrong that they wanted to correct.”A letter from the director of branches of the NAACP to the local chapter dated July 28, 1944, said the application had been received and gave the members permission to “function as a unit of the NAACP until it could be presented in a meeting of the national board on Sept. 11.Another document Turben found, stamped Dec. 6,1944, is a letter marked from the Winchester Shenandoah Area Branch and begins listing chairmen of the chapter’s committees.Letters in the Bell Archives reveal more about the branch’s timeline.One dated Aug. 24,1948 from the national organization’s secretary — addressed to G.W.Prather, president of the Winchester branch — expressed his regret at being unable to visit as a keynote speaker.A letter from Prather dated Aug. 21,1962, discussed his being happy to “entertain the 7th. district Va. State Conference on Saturday Sept. 8. at the Mt. Carmel Baptist church.”Another letter dated April 2, 1974, from the national organization — concerning a call from Raymond Radcliff about the possibility of organizing a branch in Berryville — stated: “We formerly had a branch at Winchester, but it does not seem to be functioning.”An old case re-examinedDespite the lack of definitive proof of connection between Howard Walker’s case and the branch formation, the man’s story has struck a chord with current chapter members and the people behind the project at Shenandoah University.It is probably too late to prove whether he was guilty or innocent, Borders-Walker said, but “the speed with which justice was dealt brings up the question of whether it was truly a fair trial.”Turben said he searched through newspaper articles and court records, which provided a timeline about the speed of Walker’s case.Walker was arrested on March 8,1944, and charged with criminal assault with force. He pleaded guilty on March 15 and his trial was held on March 18.During the trial in the courtroom at Rouss City Hall, Walker’s court-appointed attorneys did not ask any questions, according to the accounts.Forty-five minutes after his trial began, Walker was sentenced to die by electrocution on April 28.Appeal for lifeAfter Walker’s sentencing, local supporters are believed to have raised the funds to hire a lawyer to appeal the ruling, Turben said.The president of the Harrisburg and Dauphin County Branch of the NAACP in Pennsylvania wrote on April 11,1944, to the office in Richmond saying he had been contacted by someone from Winchester about the case and that “Mr. George Curry, agent fo an insurance company in Richmond, seems to be heading a campaign to free him.”Virginia Gov. Colgate Darden Jr. issued a 30-day reprieve for Walker so an appeal could be submitted to Judge Burr P. Harrison. It was filed on April 24 with the Clerk of Corporation Court, according to a Winchester Evening Star article from that day.NAACP lawyer Spottswood Robinson III of Richmond filed a writ of error coram nobis and motion for reversal of judgment, according to court documents. The appeal involves considering facts not on the trial record that might have changed the outcome of the court case if they had been known at the time of trial.Robinson would later gain prominence during the height of the civil rights movement, Turben said. He and his law partner Oliver Hill litigated several civil rights lawsuits in Virginia, including one combined under Brown v. Board of Education, which made segregation in public schools unconstitutional.Harrison responded April 26 by declaring the petitions without merit, and “as such were denied and dismissed,” according to a Winchester Evening Star article from that day.Not openly discussedDuring the research project looking into Walker and after the play premiered, some older black residents the project collaborators talked with said Walker was used as a cautionary tale by their grandparents and parents,” Ruscella said.“People wouldn’t talk about it,” Hofstra agreed.The collaboration between the SU theater and history departments led to information panels displayed in the lobby of Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre during the weekend of the production ofTo Kill a Mockingbird” and then in the Handley Library.Reactions of older black members of the community who saw the panels showed there is a desire to talk about it now, Gilpin said. “It really is out there that people want to talk about it.”Some people have told Borders-Walker that they do not see a need for the NAACP any more as it would have been in Walker’s time, but “there still are dispari ties and injustices,” she said.“Hopefully as society changes, there won't be a need for the NAACP. I say, ‘Work me out of a job.’ We are just trying to make a difference. We want to make sure the playing field is level, not just for blacks, but for all minorities and the poor.”The Winchester Area chapter of the NAACP is seeking anyone with knowledge of or documents about its history. Contact Gwen Borders Walker at 540-327-7061 or visit facebook.com/pages/Winchester-Area NAACP/104691923082Winchester Star Life section editor EC. Lowe contributed some information for this report.— Contact Laura McFarland at lmcfarland@winchesterstar.comim\hmmmmmmmMimMM'tfM I wmmm** «.v^s mmmm hi i■Bsstcafti* -mm\Winchester Area Branch 7127GINGER PERRY The Winchester Star
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Winchester Star
Winchester, Virginia, US
Sat, Mar 08, 2014
Page 6
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VA, USA 19 Aug 2024
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