Lost Voices

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• Ancella Bickley

• Memphis T. Garrison

• Jan Smith

• Maudella Taylor

BIOGRAPHY

Ancella Radford Bickley was born on Twenty-Eighth Street in Huntington, West Virginia on July 4, 1930. She was born into a family that gave her a strong sense of identity and a sense of solidarity. Her love for education started at a very early age, and this appreciation continued throughout her life. Being born at this time, she experienced both segregation and integration within her educational attainment. She was a graduate of Douglass High School in 1947 and then attended West Virginia State College, at which she received a Bachelors Degree in English. It was here that she met her husband, Nelson.

She received her Master's Degree in English from Marshall University in 1953. Due to her husband’s career with the military, she expanded her horizons outside of West Virginia. His assignments led them to West Virginia University, where she received her Doctorate in English. Traveling back to West Virginia State College, she began to teach and later held an administrative position. After her retirement, she began to dedicate herself to her race and to illustrate the accomplishments of black West Virginians. She has been able to escape the constraints that have been placed upon her due to her race, her gender, and her region. She has been able to give back to the community which shaped her through her acts based upon her knowledge and her desire to help her people.

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