Happy 99th Birthday to WV native Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson!

Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, African-American physicist and mathematician, was born August 26, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, WV. She would become a pioneer in space science and computing working for NASA, even calculating complex rocket trajectories with a slide rule and pencil. She and her coworkers are the subject of the Oscar-nominated 2016 film Hidden Figures.

Ms. Johnson is a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and was given an honorary Doctorate from WVU in 2017. These are just two of numerous awards and accolades she has received for a lifetime of extraordinary achievement.

WV Supreme Court's first black Justice Franklin D. Cleckley dies at age 77

We at West Virginia Senior Legal Aid are sad to hear that former WV Supreme Court Justice, WVU law professor, scholar, author, mentor, and cherished colleague Franklin D. Cleckley died on Monday 8/14/2017.

Cleckley was appointed as Justice to the WV Supreme Court of Appeals in 1994 by Gov. Caperton, making him the first black justice in WV history.

Professor Cleckley was my Criminal Procedure professor at WVU College of Law. I got a D+ in there and I worked hard for it. He had the amazing ability to compare and contrast like 8 cases at a time. I could barely keep the facts for 3 cases straight in my head, much less consider the nuance of tricky Constitutional jurisprudence going on across those opinions. In my humble opinion he was brilliant.

For more about Professor Cleckley see this article in the Charleston Gazette-Mail www.wvgazettemail.com/news-cops-and-courts/20170815/cleckley-first-black-person-on-wv-supreme-court-dies-at-77