Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MA
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
History
Committee Chair
Jessie Wilkerson
Committee Member
Austin McCoy
Committee Member
James Siekmeier
Abstract
This thesis investigates the West Virginia Human Rights Commission and its action surrounding the Civil Rights Movement. The Commission represented the liberal ideals that led white moderates to be potent allies of the Civil Rights Movement. Throughout the years following its inception, the Commission investigated and documented many instances of Jim Crow that were crushing Black communities in West Virginia. However, the limits of its liberal approach prevented it from creating solutions that would address the power structures that supported discrimination in West Virginia. By the late 1960s, Black frustrations with the lack of meaningful change boiled over into riots and rebellions to which the Commission had no answers. By centering this study on the actions of the Commission, it will explore the relationship between Black West Virginians and their white moderate allies and display how the inability to split from liberal ideals deprived Black West Virginians of meaningful allies which eventually contributed to the destruction of their communities and institutions.
Recommended Citation
Solomon, David, "Not Far Enough: The West Virginia Human Rights Commission and the Civil Rights Movement" (2025). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 13042.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/13042