CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WV News) — What began in spring 1990 as a modest meeting of Kelly Miller High School alumni aimed at fundraising has grown into one of West Virginia’s largest cultural events: The annual West Virginia Black Heritage Festival.

The festival’s roots trace back to the first “Emancipation Proclamation Celebration,” held on Sept. 22, 1990, along E.B. Saunders Way, formerly Water Street, in downtown Clarksburg. The reading of President Lincoln’s proclamation drew such enthusiastic crowds that city officials, social clubs and community groups soon filled the streets as vendors.

By 1995, the event had outgrown the Kelly Miller Alumni Association’s capacity. That year, a board was formed—including community leaders such as Allen Lee, Gladys Griffin and Grace Nunn—to guide the fe

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