Carrie Williams Saint of Coketon

13" x 19" 13 color screenprint edition of 40 on 100# French Paper
published by the artist, printed by Du-Good Press, 2021

Dedication print to Carrie Williams in which 25% of the profits will benefit organizations that support black history in Appalachia - Friends of Blackwater and Black in Appalachia

Carrie Williams was a school teacher at the segregated Coketon Colored School in the 1890s at the head of the Blackwater Canyon in the Coketon coal camp located in Tucker County, West Virginia. After the school year for black children was cut from 8 months to 5 months as compared to white children, she used her savings to pay her salary while her students attended the full school year. She found legal representation with JR Clifford, who was West Virginia's first black attorney and founder of the Niagara Movement, and together they won equal treatment for black children and teachers in the WV Supreme Court in 1898. This was a huge accomplishment and precursor to the Civil Rights movement in the 20th century. Carrie Williams: Saint of Coketon was adapted from a mural executed by Ali Printz and Ernie Williams-Tomic in the fall of 2020 on the back of Buxton and Landstreet Gallery, the original coal company store for the Coketon coal camp.