Ancella Bickley's Education

Lost Voices

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Community Shaping
Women

EDUCATION

Ancella Bickley's yearning for knowledge began at an early age and continues to this day. Before the age of five, she would travel to school with her Aunt and, according to her classmates, she would sometimes lay in front of the class reading. Her elementary years were spent at Barnett School, where she encountered her beloved first grade teacher, Mrs. Mae Brown. Later, she attended Douglass High School. Both Barnett and Douglass were all black schools. At West Virginia State College, at this time a black institution, Ancella experienced the richness and warmth of her culture. I think about those days, the spring prom season, the fraternities and sororities, some of the rituals, some of the kinds of things that we did. They did a lot of singing, which I think is true generally in the black community. I can remember hanging out the windows and listening to fellows sing, marvelous voices lofting over the campus. This was absolutely wonderful. Especially important to her was West Virginia State College's Alma Mater.

Her years as a student at West Virginia State enabled her to experience a high quality education. At that time black teachers did not have the opportunity to teach in white institutions across the country. So, we had wonderful professors with degrees from Harvard, Yale, from Columbia, from UCLA... one of the best, if not the best faculty in the state of West Virginia at that time because of this national pool.

After graduating from State, Ancella Bickley became the first full-time student to integrate Marshall University, and received her Master's degree from this institution. She taught in the Maryland public schools for a time, before furthering her own education. When her husband's military career brought the family to West Virginia University, Ancella enrolled and attained her Doctorate in English. Education continued to be significant to Dr. Bickley in her role as teacher at West Virginia University and in her roles as teacher and administrator at West Virginia State.