Ancella Radford Bickley is an American historian born in Huntington, West Virginia on July 4, 1930. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from West Virginia State College, now

West Virginia State University West Virginia State University (WVSU) is a public historically black, land-grant university in Institute, West Virginia. Founded in 1891 as the West Virginia Colored Institute, it is one of the original 19 land-grant colleges and universities ...

in 1950, a master's degree in English from

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: ...

(where she was the first full-time African American student) in 1954, and an

Ed.D. The Doctor of Education (Ed.D. or D.Ed.; Latin ''Educationis Doctor'' or ''Doctor Educationis'') is (depending on region and university) a research or professional doctoral degree that focuses on the field of education. It prepares the holder for a ...

in English from

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

in 1974. She is involved in the preservation of African American history in West Virginia.

Career

Bickley,

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of English, retired as vice president of academic affairs at

, and lives in Florida. She continues her work to bring greater recognition to African Americans, their history in Appalachia, and their accomplishments. With Lynda Ann Ewen, she co-edited ''Memphis Tennessee Garrison: The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman'', published by Ohio University Press. Bickley has authored stories and articles, for example, in West Virginia's cultural magazine,

Goldenseal ''For the magazine from West Virginia see Goldenseal (magazine)'' Goldenseal (''Hydrastis canadensis''), also called orangeroot or yellow puccoon, is a perennial herb in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to North America. It may be di ...

. She also conducted and published interviews at Marshall University for the Oral History of Appalachia Program. In 1993, Bill Drennen, commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, recorded a thirty-minute interview with Bickley for the ''Cultural Conversations'' series. She was a Rockefeller Foundation Scholar funded through Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia (CSEGA) at Marshall University, in 1999.

Legacy

The West Virginia State Archives house a collection of documents gifted to them by Bickley, half of the materials relating to the annual West Virginia Conferences on Black History begun in 1988. Another portion of materials donated pertain to the Alliance for the Collection, Preservation, and Dissemination of West Virginia's Black History, organized to plan the conferences and foster efforts to preserve and collect black history statewide. The

West Virginia & Regional History Center The West Virginia & Regional History Center (WVRHC), is the largest archival collection housing documents and manuscripts involving West Virginia and the surrounding central Appalachian region. Because of name changes over the years, it is some ...

at WVU Libraries holds a collection of Dr. Bickley's papers pertaining to her research, service, and family life.

Selected publications

In 1997, Bickley published ''Our Mount Vernons'' to identify sites significant to West Virginia Black history. With Lynda Ann Ewen, she co-edited ''Memphis Tennessee Garrison: The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman'', published by

Ohio University Press Ohio University Press (OUP), founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest scholarly press in the state of Ohio. It is a department of Ohio University that publishes under its own name and the imprint Swallow Press. History The press publishes ap ...

. She has written stories and articles for publications including West Virginia cultural magazine, ''Goldenseal''. She wrote a history of the West Virginia Schools for the Colored Deaf and Blind. Other works include the short stories ''Martha'', ''On This Rock'', and ''My Simple City''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bickley, Ancella Radford 1930 births 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers Academics from West Virginia African-American educators African-American historians African-American history of West Virginia American women historians Historians from West Virginia Living people West Virginia State University alumni West Virginia State University faculty Writers from Huntington, West Virginia 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American writers African-American women writers