Joy and David Fryson hold a picture of Joy’s grandmother, Lottie Prillerman Morris, in front of the old Diamond department store building at the corner of Capitol and Washington streets, in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, on Feb. 14, 2025. Morris participated in the boycotts of The Diamond and sit-ins at the establishment’s lunch counter in the late 1950s, until the lunch counter was integrated in 1960. It was the last lunch counter in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä to integrate. The building is now part of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services.
Booker T. Washington (left), the famed Black leader who grew up in Malden, is pictured with Byrd Prillerman (seated), president of what was then the West Virginia Colored Institute (now West Virginia State University), and Kelly Miller, a well-known mathematician, intellectual and political activist.
This is a newspaper-clipping photo of The Diamond department store on Capitol and Washington streets, in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä. In March 1956, it was reported that the store would become the property of Associated Dry Goods Corp., of New York. Transfer of the stock in the locally owned store to the New York corporation was announced by top officials of both establishments. The Diamond, West Virginia’s largest department store, was seven stories high in its newest section, extended in 1941. March 25, 1956, Gazette-Mail file photo.
The Diamond department store, built in 1927 at ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä’s 350 Capitol St., was the pinnacle of upscale shopping and dining for many local residents.
But for Black shoppers like Lottie Prillerman Morris, the experience was tainted by segregation.
While Black patrons were allowed to shop, they weren’t allowed to eat at the lunch counter or even try on the clothes.
“They’ll always take your money, but they wouldn’t let [you] try clothes on,†said Joy Fryson, Morris’ granddaughter. “It was a way to dehumanize. You could stand there, but you weren’t treated as a human being. If it touched your skin, then it’s yours.â€
Joy and David Fryson hold a picture of Joy’s grandmother, Lottie Prillerman Morris, in front of the old Diamond department store building at the corner of Capitol and Washington streets, in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, on Feb. 14, 2025. Morris participated in the boycotts of The Diamond and sit-ins at the establishment’s lunch counter in the late 1950s, until the lunch counter was integrated in 1960. It was the last lunch counter in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä to integrate. The building is now part of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail
CORE efforts
Morris told Fryson and her husband, David Fryson, about the efforts of the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality to integrate the lunch counter.
Lottie Prillerman Morris led the effort to integrate The Diamond department store, in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Courtesy photo
Morris, in her 40s at the time of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, attended the First Baptist Church in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, then pastored by Moses Newsome, who was a well-known civil rights advocate, David Fryson said.
It was the influence of Morris’ church, and her friend Elizabeth Harden Gilmore, who helped found the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä chapter of CORE that got her involved in the fight to integrate ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä establishments.
“It really didn’t go as easy as many people think,†David Fryson said. “All the lunch counters downtown were segregated.â€
Local civil rights leaders talked to the store owners and said, “If we shop here, we should be able to eat here.â€
Black patrons would buy merchandise and try to eat at the lunch counter. When they were refused service, they would return their merchandise, David Fryson said. He had never heard of violence or harassment against the people conducting the sit-ins.
This is a newspaper-clipping photo of The Diamond department store on Capitol and Washington streets, in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä. In March 1956, it was reported that the store would become the property of Associated Dry Goods Corp., of New York. Transfer of the stock in the locally owned store to the New York corporation was announced by top officials of both establishments. The Diamond, West Virginia’s largest department store, was seven stories high in its newest section, extended in 1941. March 25, 1956, Gazette-Mail file photo.
Gazette-Mail file
A boycott of The Diamond went into effect in October 1958, according to local newspaper accounts. In spring 1960, a group of West Virginia State College students staged a sit-in at the lunch counter. Previous sit-ins had taken place at the cafeteria.
In 1996, Sharon Reed Hill of ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä wrote in The ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Gazette that she was at the store the day of a sit-in.
“[I] remember the red velvet ropes that blocked off the eating area and thinking, ‘Why can’t all people be treated the same,’†she wrote.
A few weeks later, students picketed in front of the building.
Finally, in May 1960, after more than two years of a boycott, the store announced that it would integrate its cafeteria and lunch counter, according to articles from The Gazette and ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Daily Mail archives.
“Other ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä merchandising establishments with eating facilities have for some time served Negroes,†one article said. “The Diamond becomes the last to lift the color barrier.
David Fryson said he thought it was the embarrassment of being aligned with Southern cities that refused to integrate that was the impetus for The Diamond’s change.
He said he’d like to see modern boycotts, like a nationwide one planned for Feb. 28, of companies that have backed away from their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“I think it’s almost time for us to start some modern sit-ins,†he said.
Even after the integration of The Diamond, “many restaurants and dining rooms†still refused service to Black patrons, according to another newspaper account.
Segregation remained “spotty†in the city, Fryson said, recounting a time when he was not allowed to swim with white children at a picnic.
A legacy of change
Morris, who died in 1988, was a domestic worker and was involved with the NAACP.
“[She was] just a sweetheart,†Joy Fryson said. “I never heard a bad word about her. Ever.â€
Morris’ children (and ancestors) leave a legacy of changemaking in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä.
Morris’ great-grandmother was Mary Barnes, an enslaved woman who had a relationship with slave owner Samuel Cabell in Institute. Cabell put in his will that Barnes and their children should be given his property. Barnes changed her last name to Cabell after his death.
Booker T. Washington (left), the famed Black leader who grew up in Malden, is pictured with Byrd Prillerman (seated), president of what was then the West Virginia Colored Institute (now West Virginia State University), and Kelly Miller, a well-known mathematician, intellectual and political activist.
Courtesy photo
Morris’ uncle was Byrd Prillerman, the fourth president of what is now West Virginia State University. According to the university’s website, he was one of the people responsible for the school’s Institute location. During his tenure, the school began offering college degrees.
Jim Morris, a longtime educator, became West Virginia’s first Black high school principal.
Courtesy photo
Jim Morris, Lottie Prillerman Morris’ son and Joy Fryson’s father, was the first Black high school principal in West Virginia after integration.
His brother, Paul J. Morris, was a member of the West Virginia Board of Education. According to his obituary, he was given the Distinguished West Virginian Award by Gov. Cecil Underwood in 1999.
The Frysons, who have long been involved in DEI efforts, say they hope to continue the legacy of Lottie Morris and make a difference in their generation.
“I think Grandmother Lottie instilled in all the kids that they have to do something and they have to be something,†Joy Fryson said. “She just did what she thought was right.â€
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