Heritage Towers

08/26/2022

Katherine Johnson was born August 26, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. She graduated with honors from West Virginia State University at just 18, majoring in mathematics and French.

The Greenbrier Historical Society will be hosting a weekend of community activities aimed at recognizing Katherine's life and legacy and inspiring the next generation of scientists and thinkers. WVSU is proud to sponsor this event. Learn more ➡ https://bit.ly/3CjL49P

08/26/2022

This Friday is recognized as Katherine Johnson Day in West Virginia, in honor of the late Katherine Johnson, a WVSU alumna and West Virginia native, who became most known for calculating equations of NASA's orbital mission of Astronaut John Glenn in the 1960s. We'll be sharing more about Katherine in the coming days.

📷: NASA

11/05/2021

Everyone has heard of Black Wall Street.
Meet the founder, O.W. Gurley !

[In 1905 Gurley and his wife sold their property in Noble County and moved 80 miles to the oil boom town of Tulsa. Gurley purchased 40 acres of land in North Tulsa and established his first business, a rooming house on a dusty road that would become Greenwood Avenue. He subdivided his plot into residential and commercial lots and eventually opened a grocery store.

As the community grew around him, Gurley prospered. Between 1910 and 1920, the Black population in the area he had purchased grew from 2,000 to nearly 9,000 in a city with a total population of 72,000. The Black community had a large working-class population as well as doctors, lawyers, and other professionals who provided services to them. Soon the Greenwood section was dubbed “Negro Wall Street” by Tuskegee educator Booker T. Washington.

Greenwood, now called Black Wall Street, was nearly self-sufficient with Black-owned businesses, many initially financed by Gurley, ranging from brickyards and theaters to a chartered airplane company. Gurley built the Gurley Hotel at 112 N. Greenwood and rented out spaces to smaller businesses. His other properties included a two-story building at 119 N. Greenwood, which housed the Masonic Lodge and a Black employment agency. He was also one of the founders of Vernon AME Church.

Gurley’s prosperity ended in 1921...] Read more here: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/o-w-gurley-1868-1935/

09/30/2021

09/23/2021

Susannah Mushatt Jones 🙏🏿🙌🏿

09/10/2021

Uncle Tom was a man who refused to beat black women.
Uncle Tom was a man who refused to tell on other slaves.
Uncle tom was a man who would put cotton in other slaves’ bags at night, so that they wouldn’t get beat!
Uncle Tom was a man who helped 100 slaves get free long before the underground railroad.
Uncle Tom was a man, that once free, established the 1st Laborers school for other fugitive slaves!

His name? Josiah Henson! Josiah Henson was an author, abolitionist, and minister. Born into slavery, in Port To***co, Charles County, Maryland, he escaped to Upper Canada in 1830, and founded a settlement and laborer’s school for other fugitive slaves at Dawn, near Dresden, in Kent County, Upper Canada, of British Canada.

So stop calling these sell-outs Uncle tom! That’s a compliment! Its Sambo that was the sell-out, who would do anything for his slave masters’ approval!

09/07/2021

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09/04/2021

"A lot of people will roll their eyes at me...but I’m going to tell you just like it is. There’s so much hypocrisy in this society and if we want America to be a free society we have to stop telling lies, that’s all. Because we’re not free and you know we’re not free."
- Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977)

09/04/2021

On this date in 1838, abolitionist, journalist, author, and human rights advocate Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery, making his way up north. He disguised himself as a free Black sailor and used a friend's sailor’s protection pass to take a train from Baltimore to New York.

He was aided by his then-fiance, Anna Murray, who sewed his disguise and saved money to help him escape slavery and start a new life. Once he got up to New York, the couple married, changed their name to Douglass, and moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to begin their lives as abolitionists.

08/21/2021

After chemo (and immunotherapy) treatment, it's true that it can take years until you feel alive again ... With the side effects of chemo and radiation, you will never be 100% again because your immune system is weak. Ruins marriages, families and relationships with friends. Because you're not the same again after cancer and treatments.
In the hardest moments you know who your real friends are or who the people are who appreciate you.
Unfortunately, like with most friendships, Facebook friends will leave you in the middle of a story. They want a post to ′′like′′ for the story, but they don't really read your message when they see it is long.
More than half have stopped reading. Someone may have already gone to the next post in their newsfeed.
I have decided to publish this post in support of close family, friends and relatives who have fought this horrible disease.
Now I'm focusing on those who take the time to read this post to the end ... a little test, just to see who reads and who shares without reading.
Cancer is a very aggressive and destructive enemy of our bodies.
Even after treatment, the body is devastated. It's a very long process.
I would like to know who I can count on and who takes the time to read this.
When you have finished this, write ′′Done′′ in the comments.
Sadly, cancer is still the illness of the century. Unlike others, this little petition will not have the effect of removing friends from my list. As I have a personal interest in the effects of cancer, I want to see who reads and who shares without reading! If you've read everything, select ′′Like′′ so I can put a thank you on your profile. I know 97% of you won't broadcast it but my friends will be the 3% who will. Please, in honour of someone who died, or who is battling cancer. Everyone says, ′′If you need anything, don't hesitate: I'll be there for you.′′ So I'm going to make a bet, without being pessimistic: I know my family and friends will put it on their wall. You just have to copy (not share)!!! It's awareness month for this disease. I did it for someone very very special! We all know someone who stood before us, and who has fought or who is fighting this battle.
. . For those striving to survive and lose that lost their battle!!