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Updated: July 13, 2025 @ 12:38 pm
Callie J. Barnett is seen with quilts, location and date unknown. Callie Barnett did skilled sewing to supplement her husbandƵs income as principal at Douglass High School.
Callie J. Barnett is seen with quilts, location and date unknown. Callie Barnett did skilled sewing to supplement her husbandƵs income as principal at Douglass High School.
EditorƵs Note: This is the 603rd in a series of articles recalling vintage Huntington scenes.
Callie Barnett (1871-1980) was a true Huntington treasure. Her life spanned 109 years and paralleled the history of Huntington.
Her grandmother was a former slave, her husband was one of the first Black men to graduate from Dennison University, and her father-in-law came to Huntington to work for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway when it was being built in the cityƵs first years.
ƵHe walked out here from Buckingham, Virginia, and saw how badly the railroad needed workers,Ƶ she recalled. ƵHe returned to Buckingham and encouraged others to follow him to Huntington.Ƶ
Her father-in-law, the Rev. Nelson Barnett, was one of the first pastors of the cityƵs First Baptist Church, a historically Black congregation. Her husband, Carter Harrison Barnett, was principal at Douglass High School, which served HuntingtonƵs Black students. For a time she also taught there.
She lived through segregation and the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of the first members of the NAACP when it was organized in the 1920s.
ƵThey always said separate but equal, but you know that was never true,Ƶ she said in a 1974 interview.
Commenting on her long life, she told a reporter: ƵMaybe the Lord let me stay so I could see that my folks were finally going to be American citizens.Ƶ
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