By Steve Keenan
Staff Writer
FAYETTEVILLE — Two black Fayette County attorneys who blazed a trail for African-American lawyers to follow will be featured in a special Black History Month celebration on Feb. 25.
The historical contributions of James M. Ellis (1870-1957) and Thomas L. Sweeney (1870-1944) will be commemorated in a ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday in Circuit Judge John Hatcher’s main courtroom in the Fayette County Courthouse.
Fayette County Circuit Clerk Danny Wright, who’s organizing the event, says Ellis and Sweeney are prime examples of the county’s role in the evolution of black history in the state.
“Fayette County has quite an interesting contribution to black history,” said Wright.
The legacy of Ellis and Sweeney revolved around a rather routine case that was eventually heard before the state Supreme Court in 1915, according to Wright.
In 1914, William Chambers sued the Great State Council of Red Men in Fayette County Circuit Court, Wright relates. The purpose of the suit was to secure the payment of a $163 life insurance policy on Fred Glover, a Chambers friend who died following a July 4 fight near Lanark.
The circuit court ruled in Chambers’ favor, but the Red Men appealed the decision to the W.Va. Supreme Court of Appeals. At that point, the Red Men, a fraternal organization, employed Ellis — the county’s second black member of the House of Delegates after Christopher Payne — as its counsel. Chambers retained Sweeney, of Fayetteville. The Supreme Court heard the case on Sept. 1, 1915, issuing a 15-page opinion six days later that reversed the lower court ruling and ordered a new trial. Wright said he could find no evidence that the case ever resurfaced in the court system.
“What makes this such an important case is that, when Sweeney and Ellis appeared before the Supreme Court, it was the first time in West Virginia history that a case had been argued before the (Supreme) Court by two black lawyers,” said Wright.
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Robin Davis, chief justice of the W.Va. Supreme Court, will be the featured speaker Thursday.
In addition to her remarks, the program will also include Hatcher and Wright, Ken Eskew, Fayette County Commission president; the Rev. Sam Calloway Jr., Spirit & Truth Ministries; Carl Harris, the Fayette County prosecuting attorney; Belinda Morton, a Fayette attorney; Barbara Schamberger, the former secretary of the education and arts; and Steve Pilato, Gov. Joe Manchin’s regional representative.
The public is welcome to attend the ceremony.
— E-mail: skeenan@register-herald.com
