On Thursday, August 28, 2014, Barbara Hicks Lacy will present “African American Life in Charleston: A Personal Perspective, Part III” in the Archives and History Library in the Culture Center in Charleston. The program, which is the third of The Block Speakers Series, will begin at 6:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
A native of Charleston, Lacy spent the first six years of her life at her mother’s Shrewsbury Street boarding house, which was located in the middle of “The Block.” She continued to maintain strong ties to the area until 1957 as an employee at her father’s restaurant, the Block Cafe, located first at 908 East Washington Street across from the post office and later on the ground floor of the Ferguson Hotel.
Barbara Lacy is the only child of the late Edward Luther Hicks and Mary Arlena Waller Hicks. She graduated from Garnet High School in 1951 and from West Virginia State College in 1956 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a secondary teacher certification. Lacy also holds a master’s degree in education administration from West Virginia University.
Lacy has served as a social worker and social worker supervisor for the Division of Health and Human Resources, instructor for Job Corps, program director for Multicap Headstart, the interstate program director for the Department of Employment Services, a Civil Rights compliance officer for the Inspector General’s Office, a minority business counselor and information specialist in the Governor’s Office of Employment and Training, and the director of the West Virginia Foster Grandparent Program. She has served as a representative on both the Region III and the National Headstart Advisory councils and is a former commissioner on the Kanawha County Planning and Zoning Committee.
Among her numerous community service activities, Lacy was a charter board member of the Community of Rand Association and has served on the boards of the Kanawha Valley Mental Health Association, Kanawha Valley Senior Services, Children’s Home Society, Kanawha Valley Extension Service, YWCA, and the WVDHHR Credit Union. Currently, she is on the board of the East End Family Resource Center. She also has served as a mentor for Kanawha County Board of Education’s “Keep a Child in School Program.”
A widow, Barbara Lacy is the mother of two children, one deceased, and the grandmother of three
For additional information, call (304) 558-0230.
