African American Families of Tucker County

With the growth and development of the lumber and coal industries in Tucker County came a need for more workers. People arrived from all over the country and the world, each hoping to earn a living and provide for their families. While many immigrant families came from Italy, Slovenia, and England, there was also a growing population of African American families who moved to West Virginia in search of work and opportunity.

These families often followed employment from one mining community to another, hoping to find a place where they could work, raise their children, and build a community. The towns of Thomas and Davis were no exception.

One such family was that of Peter Absalom Barmer. Originally from North Carolina, Barmer moved to Tunnelton, West Virginia, in 1911. In 1914, he was ordained as a minister and later came to Davis, where he was placed in charge of Mt. Zion Baptist Church. While serving as a reverend, Barmer also worked in the local coal mines to help support his family. His son, Eugene “Gene” Barmer, followed a similar path and worked as a coal miner until the Davis Coal and Coke Company closed in 1947. The Barmer family was just one of many African American families who came to Tucker County during this period. Each family had its own story, but all were drawn to the area by the promise of work and a better life.

In 1898, an important civil rights case emerged in Tucker County. Attorney J. R. Clifford represented Mrs. Carrie Williams in a dispute with the local Board of Education. The board planned to close the African American school before the end of its scheduled term. The school, located in Coketon, was supposed to remain open for nine months, but the board intended to close it after only five months.

Believing this was unjust, Mrs. Williams sought Clifford's advice. Clifford, recognized as West Virginia's first African American lawyer, encouraged her to continue teaching for the full term. He explained that if the board refused to pay her for the remaining months, there would be grounds for legal action. Mrs. Williams followed his advice, and when she was not paid, Clifford brought the case to court.

Clifford successfully fought on behalf of Mrs. Williams and the students of the African American school. The case ultimately reached the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, where he won. The court's decision strengthened educational rights for African American students throughout the state more than fifty years before the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. It remains one of the few civil rights victories achieved in a Southern state's highest court before the turn of the twentieth century.

The stories of the Barmer family and the Williams case represent only a small part of the African American experience in Tucker County. Many other stories remain untold or have been forgotten over time. As Juneteenth approaches, it is important to recognize and share the history of African American families in Tucker County and to remember the contributions they made to the communities we know today.