“There is a lot of information and photographs, it’s just not been compiled into one place or document,” Nelson told the committee.
Committee member Meaghan Taylor said the planning department was working on compiling a list of all the town’s historic markers, refurbishing them and possibly relocating some to a more accessible location. It was brought up the marker with Lightfoot’s information and about the African-American business community in that area should be moved next to the LOVE sign across from the Depot, within view of the old grocery.
Roberts, a community organizer who lives in Culpeper County and grew up in Rappahannock, told the committee she spent a lot of time downtown as a child.
“One of the ideas that came up was having an African-American trail, a lot of towns and cities have that, where it’s documented and will have a map at the town visitor center, so there are a lot of things that can be done,” she said of implementing the town-adopted Black History resolution.
Culpeper native Thunder Lane also spoke in favor of acknowledging the history, saying he could remember from his boyhood all the Black businesses at the end of Davis Street in the ‘50s and ‘60s: the cab stand, pool hall, funeral home and a Trailway Bus Station at the Depot.
His late father, Johnson Lane, “got his tutelage” at Sonny Porter’s Garage in the area before he went off to Tuskegee University, served with the Navy and was an engineer at Fort Belvoir.
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