ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) – Edward Dudley grew up in the Gainsboro neighborhood in Roanoke and later became the first African American United States Ambassador. He served in Liberia from 1949 to 1953, then returned to the US to serve as a court justice and a Civil Rights activist.
People feared his legacy was forgotten with time, so the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and the city of Roanoke stepped in and built and unveiled a plaque dedicated to him at the corner of Gilmore Avenue and Gainsboro Road.
“These markers are public and they’re on the street corners as we are here at the corner of Gainsboro (Road) and Gilmore Avenue, and so they’re permanent,” Nelson Harris, a local historian and former mayor of Roanoke, said. “It really does allow history to be contextualized and to be told publicly.”
Harris was joined by current Mayor Sherman Lea, Vice Mayor Joe Cobb, Dudley’s son Edward Dudley junior and many others.
They noted how special it was to have someone from the area make such an impact globally.
“All of these landmark pieces of work that he did throughout his life,” Cobb said. “Not only breaking down barriers, but creating pathways for people to come into leadership, and that all started in Roanoke is very special.”
After the unveiling of the plaque, the Gainsboro library hosted a reception and Q-&-A with Dudley junior, who finally had the opportunity to tell his father’s stories.
A moment he believes was long overdue.
“History is so important like the stories I told people, and I think they enjoyed them,” Dudley junior said. “He was such a special person, I believe he was a special person that not many (people) know about.”
Dudley plans to donate a bunch of his father’s documents to the library so anyone can learn about him.