Charleston attorney Kim Farha remembers well the day Robert Easley came to speak at DuPont High School.
When Farha heard that Easley, a retired Charleston police officer turned youth mentor, would give a lecture in the school's theater in celebration of "Pride Week," Farha's first reaction was, "Hey, a way to get out of class," he said, drawing laughter from the crowd Thursday in the ceremonial courtroom at the Kanawha County Courthouse.
When Easley took the stage, Farha remembered, there were several students slumped down in the front rows.
"But he wasn't coming there to waste his time on a spring afternoon," Farha said. "He came down off the stage and looked at the students and said, 'Is this how you're going to go to a job interview? Looking like you just came out of a bar at 2:30 a.m.'
"You ought to have seen those four sections," Farha said, recalling that day. "Everybody just raised up. Then, he went back up on the stage and told us about pride. He told us about showing respect for others, showing respect for women, showing respect for elders, and he told us about getting an education and making the right decisions."
The late Robert Edward Easley Sr. was one of about a handful of those recognized and remembered Thursday for their work in the community. The fifth annual Black History Month "STAR" Celebration honored "Bridge Builders," said Kanawha Family Court Judge Sharon Mullens, who organized the event.
The celebration encouraged attorneys and others in attendance to find ways to "build bridges" in their own way. An attorney with Legal Aid of West Virginia spoke about opportunities for lawyers to do pro bono work in their communities.
Mullens told those in the courtroom Thursday that she began her legal career working at Legal Aid, as did U.S. District Judge Irene Berger, who also was honored Thursday.
Berger, a former Kanawha Circuit Court judge and assistant prosecutor, was the first black woman to serve as a circuit judge in West Virginia and later became the first black woman appointed federal judge from the state.
Kathy Ferguson spoke Thursday about her late parents, Gail Marie and Warne L. Ferguson, who were among those honored at the ceremony.
Judge Gail Ferguson served as an administrative law judge for the state's Human Rights Commission, where she was responsible for the issuance of many landmark decisions relating to race and sexual discrimination.
She also worked as a civil rights attorney in Charleston, for the West Virginia Job Corps, as an assistant attorney general and as general counsel for the state Human Rights Commission. She had also been a member of the law firm, Kaufman & Ratliff.
Warne Ferguson, an Institute native, met his wife in her native New York City, where they both taught in public schools. He was regarded throughout Manhattan as a pioneer for children's fitness. His proudest moments came from his work as the recreation director of various after-school programs. He went on to develop and coach tennis programs for under-served youth in New York and Charleston.
He was the first African- American to play in the state's Public Courts tennis tournament and became the first African American to win a division in the tournaments. He won more than five championships in the tournaments.
What he loved the most, his daughter said Thursday, was the work he did at West Virginia State University, his alma mater. He served there as director of Upward Bound and Special Services programs.
"My parents shied away from awards, but they did want to leave a legacy of bridge building," Kathy Ferguson said.
Also honored Thursday were retired longtime Kanawha school teacher Patricia Edwards, who developed performing arts as part of the curriculum at Capital High and former Kanawha magistrate and assessor Phyllis Gatson.
Carole "Cookie" Glasser also was honored. Glasser spent part of her career with the state's former Department of Welfare recruiting long-term foster homes for children with special needs, establishing group sessions with adoptive and foster families by county and implementing policies to allow interracial couples and single parents the opportunity to adopt children.
Marshall P. Moss, an investigator with the state's Human Rights Commission and youth mentor, also was honored, along with James Earl Parker, an attorney who is best known for his work assisting black coal miners, and the Rev. Matthew J. Watts, pastor of Grace Bible Church and Charleston community leader, who leads many efforts to help the city's youth, and former West Virginia State University professor Richard Nathanial Gwinn.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.