Throughout the state of Virginia, African American athletes performed and performed well in all sports. Harrisonburg’s Ralph Sampson, Richmond’s Russell Wilson, Petersburg’s Moses Malone and many others transitioned their incredible talents from high school to college and ultimately to the pros. Unfortunately, what rarely gets notice are those noteworthy accomplishments by talented Black people in
professions and fields other than sports. For example, with Augusta County, Virginia the focus here, Staunton’s Dr. St. Clare Drake became an accomplished historian, Larry Vickers is a well known choreographer, Moonyean Jackson Esq., is a successful lawyer and nationally recognized Harriet Tubman scholar, Andrew Venable led the largest public library in the nation and Dr. Eugene Franklin became a successful neurosurgeon in Kentucky. But “back in the day,” many of those lesser known talented African-American athletes in particular performed during school segregation and often in subpar facilities. So, who are they, what are their stories and what did they accomplish? “On Their Shoulders We Stand” is our answer to those questions. In it we’ll chronicle those stories from the twenties up to the beginning of the 1970s. We’ll travel highways between Staunton and Waynesboro, up interstate 81 to Harrisonburg and Wi******er, south to Lexington, Fincastle, Roanoke and Salem and west to Covington and Clifton Forge with snapshots of great teams and players known and unknown. We’ll introduce or reintroduce you many of those accomplished athletes and others on whose shoulders contemporary athletes and other professionals stand today. Now although our focus will be on Augusta County female and male athletes, players from outside the county who played against Augusta County teams will be chronicled as well.Going forward, we invite our followers to share our chronicles and, as important, to send us photos, articles, stories about others, etc., from your collection.
