Ancella Radford Bickley
Ancella Radford Bickley is an American historian. A native of Huntington, West Virginia, she earned her Ed.D. from West Virginia State University in 1952.[1] She is involved in the preservation of African American history in West Virginia.
Career
Bickley, professor emeritus of English, retired as Vice President, Academic Affairs, West Virginia State University, and lives in Florida. She continues her work to bring greater recognition to African Americans, their history in Appalachia, and their accomplishments.[2] With r. 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.
She was a Rockefeller Scholar funded through Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia (CSEGA) at Marshall University, WV in 1999.[3]
Legacy
The WV State Archives house a collection of documents gifted to them by Dr. Bickley, half of the materials relating to the annual WV 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.[4]
Selected Publications
In 1997, Bickley published Our Mount Vernons to identify sites significant to West Virginia Black history.[5]
With Lynda Ann Ewen, she co-edited Memphis Tennessee Garrison: The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman, published by Ohio University Press. She has authored stories and articles such as West Virginia cultural magazine, Goldenseal. She is also author of a history of the West Virginia Schools for the Colored Deaf and Blind.[1]
Her other works include the short stories “Martha,” "On This Rock," and "My Simple City."