Storer College

Historical Sites, National & State Parks, Historical Sites, National & State ParksHarpers Ferry, WV

Following the Civil War, the Reverend Dr. Nathan Cook Brackett established a Freewill Baptist primary school in the Lockwood House on Camp Hill. The school was open to all regardless of sex, race or religion.

The Niagara Movement was a civil rights organization founded in 1905 by a group lead by W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter. It was named for the "mighty current" of change the group wanted to effect and the Niagara Falls where the first meeting took place in July 1905.

The Niagara Movement was a call for opposition to racial segregation and disenfranchisement as well as policies of accommodation and conciliation promoted by African American leaders such as Booker T. Washington.

Their second meeting, the first to be held on U.S. soil, took place at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, the site of John Brown's raid. The three-day gathering, starting on August 15, 1906 at the campus of Storer College (now part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park), discussed how to secure civil rights for African Americans and was later described by Du Bois as "one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held."

Attendees walked from Storer College to the nearby Murphy Family farm, site of the historic fort where John Brown's quest to free four million enslaved Black people reached its bloody climax.

Storer College

483 Fillmore Street
Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

Jefferson County, WV
304-535-6029

MORE ABOUT THE AREA

Harpers Ferry, WV — Harpers Ferry witnessed John Brown’s attack on slavery in 1859, the largest surrender of Federal troops during the Civil War, and the education of former slaves at Storer College, one of the earliest integrated…

LOCAL TOURISM REFERENCES

Jefferson County Convention & Visitors Bureau
37 Washington Court Harpers Ferry, WV 25425
304-535-2627 or 866-HELLO-WV (866-435-5698)
Monday – Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
www.wveasterngateway.com