NABS on the Road: Janice Cooley - Lewisburg, WV

Documenting 2024 Black Appalachian Storyteller Fellows

A Ten-Post Series by Ilene Evans

Editor: Karen Abdul-Malik

Echoes of Slavery Exhibit by Janice Lynn Cooley housed at Greenbriar Historical Society, Lewisburg, WV

Janice grew up on Cooley Hill in Lewisburg. Yes, the whole family lived on the hill that overlooks all of Lewisburg. All the houses on that hill were family and in segregated times, that was home. When Janice returned to Cooley Hill, from a long professional career, away from home, she found that there was no recognition of the life, times, contributions to the growth and development, and struggles of African American History anywhere in the Greenbrier County history. Not in the Historical Society, not in the schools, not in Carnegie Hall, and not in the Greenbrier Resort itself. Janice took on a mission to create an exhibit to restore her family’s history and contribution to the public record.

Janice Cooley explaining how the Green Book was used to help people of African decent travel safely from town to town.

But not only her own family, the families of their friends, co-workers, and neighbors. They had been erased. Forgotten. People in Greenbrier County had come to believe that there were no slaves held there, that the contribution of black people was negligible at best. Janice knew a different story and was challenged to correct the omissions and the misinformation surrounding black life in Greenbrier County.

Janice Cooley sharing artifacts from her research on family history on Cooley Hill in Lewisburg WV.

There was little to no recognition of the presence and contribution or importance of people like those in her family who labored in Greenbrier County for generations before her. She could do something about that. And so, she began to collect and curate their stories. It was a deep dive into American history from the Cooley point of view. She collected photographs, paintings, oral histories, artifacts and personal items dear to people who remembered. She studied the laws from times of enslavement to today and how they affected her people. Telling those stories has become her passion. The stories were housed in a travelling exhibit called Invisible Roots and Legends… Now it has become a permanent exhibit at the Greenbrier Historical Society Museum called Echoes of Slavery.  https://www.greenbrierhistorical.org/ 

Photograph of the Bolling Elementary School where her father and family attended while living in Lewisburg, WV. Janice’s dad is in this photo.

The legacy of the Cooley family was just the beginning of her story. She has been a curator of the rich life and folkways of Greenbrier County. She has documented that journey from slavery through the world wars, highlighting the labor, the works, the industry, religious celebrations and all the things that reflect the love and light of a people.

Janice’s Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother, Emma and Howard Cooley. Emma was born in 1868 and Howard was born in 1864.

Janice’s Father, Paul Cooley, born in 1920.

Our interview with Janice revealed how she has used her skill to organize, catalogue, preserve, and keep true the many oral histories she has collected. She has done the same with paintings, artifacts, and photos entrusted to her keeping. In essence Janice went beyond taking a seat at the table at The Greenbrier Historical Society Museum and the Riverside School. She created a table anew that influences increased access to Greenbrier’s history for many future generations to come.