Commemorating The Life Of Vincent Omar Leggett
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the life of Vincent Omar Leggett, a tireless advocate for the Chesapeake Bay and the founder of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation. Vince Leggett was a devoted historian and conservationist…
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the life of Vincent Omar Leggett, a tireless advocate for the Chesapeake Bay and the founder of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation.
Vince Leggett was a devoted historian and conservationist whose passion for the Chesapeake Bay was unmatched. Through his leadership of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation, Vince shed light on the untold stories of Black life along the Bay and brought new depth to our understanding of the Bay's heritage.
I extend my heartfelt condolences to Vince's family, friends and all who knew him. His commitment to the Chesapeake community inspired countless individuals--including myself--we will honor his memory by continuing his vital work to protect and celebrate the Bay and its diverse communities.
I include in the Record an article by Christine Condon.
`He Was the First': Vincent Leggett Remembered as a Singular Voice for
Black History of the Chesapeake Bay
(By Christine Condon)
Carnelious Jones was volunteering aboard the Amistad, a
replica of the historic cargo schooner, when Vince Leggett
walked into his life.
Jones, whose company had donated fuel to the Amistad, had
been told that an ``admiral'' would board the vessel before
it sailed into Baltimore's Inner Harbor. So Jones, a Navy
veteran, expected a stern military man in uniform--not the
sedan that pulled up nearby (several minutes late), and the
jovial man who climbed aboard in a white captain's hat.
That was Vince Leggett, who had been named an Admiral of
the Chesapeake Bay in 2003 by then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening.
He was the third Black person to receive the honor,
recognizing a lifetime of service to the Nation's largest
estuary.
``I saw that he had done some astonishing things,'' Jones
said. ``So, I approached him and I shook his hand, I told him
I was happy to meet him, and thanked him for his
accomplishments.''
When the ship reached the shore, Leggett brought Jones to
his tent, featuring artifacts he'd collected for his book
about the Black history of the Chesapeake Bay. Jones was
enthralled.
``I'm from the south--in Tennessee,'' Jones said. ``I was
amazed at just how outspoken everything was, and how much
development as it relates to the African American story was
so publicized and so published.''
Vincent Omar Leggett died Nov. 23 at 71-years-old. A pillar
of the Anne Arundel County community, who served on the
school board, directed the Annapolis housing authority and
even became the first Black chaplain of the Annapolis fire
department, Leggett was perhaps best known for his work on
the Chesapeake Bay.
Beginning in the 1980s, through his foundation, Blacks of
the Chesapeake, Leggett gathered and preserved the legacy of
Black bayside communities, watermen, captains, seafood
industry workers, and sail makers. For Leggett, it began with
the recognition that the history books often omitted these
stories. So, he told them himself, penning ``The Chesapeake
Bay Through Ebony Eyes,'' and serving for decades as an
encyclopedia of the Bay's Black legacy.
``He wanted everybody else to know that it was more. We
were just not shucking them oysters,'' said Jones, the vice
president for new business development at Blacks of the
Chesapeake. ``We had contributors, to this day, into this
maritime industry.''
Leggett also had stints at the Maryland Department of
Natural Resources, as chairman of the Wiley H. Bates Legacy
Center, as a board member for the Seafarers Yacht Club of
Annapolis, and on the list goes. Friends remember him as a
talented historian and orator, who also served as a lobbyist,
an advocate, and perhaps above all--a leader.
Leggett was also the driving force behind a successful
decades-long effort to preserve the historic Elktonia-Carr's
Beach Heritage Park, the last remnant of the Black-owned
beach land that welcomed Black families during segregation,
and hosted music legends such as Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha
Franklin.
Along the way, Leggett inspired a new generation of
historians and environmental advocates, forging a path for
Black voices where none existed before, said R. Kenyatta
Rowel Jr., CEO of Breaking Boundaries Environmental, a
Maryland-based environmental restoration firm he started in
2022.
``Vince paved the way as a trailblazer for all of these
activities, all of these places and spaces for people like
me.'' Rowel said. ``He was the first.''
Rowel remembers a recent event he attended with Leggett at
the Whitehall Plantation near Annapolis. For Rowel, who grew
up nearby in a historically African American community called
Mulberry Hill on the Broadneck Peninsula, the event was
already special. But Leggett made it even more so.
``He was talking on the mic, and he introduced me and my
company to have a few words. And to me, that was a moment I'm
never going to forget,'' Rowel said.
For Leggett, it began with his upbringing in Baltimore, and
family trips fishing and boating on the Chesapeake Bay, Jones
said. The experiences tied him to the outdoors, and were the
first spark for his eventual effort as a historian.
``It wasn't a research project. It was part of his
livelihood,'' Jones said, ``That's the difference.'' Though
he grew up in Baltimore, where he also earned his bachelor's
degree from Morgan State University, Leggett ultimately built
his life in Anne Arundel County. He and his wife Aldena lived
in Arundel-on-the Bay enclave in Annapolis, according to an
online biography, where they enjoyed ``beautiful bay views,
fishing with their grandchildren and planning their next trip
to the golf green.'' For Jones, that day aboard the Amistad--
a reproduction of the ship famous for its 1839 slave revolt--
began a yearslong partnership and friendship with Leggett,
focused on achieving shared goals for the Bay's Black
community and its legacy.
He looks back fondly on their frequent early morning phone
calls, beginning as soon as 4 a.m. and continuing for 90
minutes--or until Leggett left to make his wife coffee or
breakfast as she headed off to work, Jones said.
To this day, Jones and others marvel at Leggett's ability
to balance it all. The early morning and late evening
meetings, the positions on countless boards and committees,
the appointments with legislators, community members and
advocates.
``There are people every now and then that come through,
that--it's unexplainable,'' Jones said.
Much of Leggett's legacy lives on in the vast array of
artifacts he amassed amid decades of research on the Bay's
Black history. Today, much of the collection is stored in
warehouses, but it is being digitized and shared publicly
online, thanks to a partnership with the Maryland Archives.
To Leggett, the history of the Bay should include not only
Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, but everyday Black
Marylanders, who let him into their homes--and into their
worlds. In a way, he became their representative--their
messenger, Jones said.
``The ones that passed, he would put a book inside of their
coffin. The family would give
him the artifacts of the waterman,'' Jones said. ``They
trusted that he would do something with it.''
In the archives, Leggett himself, and his foundation, is a
part of the history. In 2000, the Library of Congress
designated the foundation as a Local Legacy Project.
The archive includes not only artifacts and images
documenting Black life in the Bay region, but also
documenting Leggett and his foundation--photos of him at a
book release or a boat show, examples of exhibits and more.
``He had collected a large collection at that time. Papers,
posters, his own personal documents, correspondence with
different officials, really chronicling the 30-year history
of Blacks of the Chesapeake,'' said Corey Lewis, assistant
state archivist at the Maryland Archives.
``You couldn't tell the story without Vince,'' Lewis said.
For the past several years, interns from local universities
have helped document the collection, conduct research and
find places to put the artifacts on display, Lewis said.
Leggett made a point of working with each intern directly,
pointing out figures in photos and telling their stories,
ensuring the online collection would be complete, Lewis said.
``He could have just given us the collection. But he found it
important--we found it important--for him to come in, sit
down and spend time with them,'' Lewis said.
Joel Dunn, president of the Chesapeake Conservancy, said he
was incredibly proud to work alongside Leggett to preserve
Carr's Beach, a crowning achievement for Leggett's legacy.
Today, the beach is set to be transformed into public
parkland. The more recent acquisition--a home on the
property--could become a visitor center. Dunn believes it
should bear Leggett's name.
Getting the land was far from simple, Dunn said, as the
waterfront properties were incredibly valuable. It took
millions, including from local government, the Conservancy
and Blacks of the Chesapeake, to save the land from another
fate, such as residential development. Leggett, who had an
existing relationship with landowners and a proven track
record of preservation, was instrumental in sealing the deal.
``Vince was so knowledgeable about that history, and all
the acts that played there. And the years and months that
they played,'' Dunn said. ``He just was such a great
storyteller. That, I think, was a really key part of winning
over the landowner and the elected officials and garnering
the resources we needed.'' There is a particular memory of
Leggett that still plays on in Dunn's mind. It was Juneteenth
this year, when Leggett planned a celebration at Carr's
Beach--complete with music acts, a fish fry and fried
chicken. And there Leggett was, in the middle of it all,
dancing on the very beach that he helped preserve. ``Now,
multiple generations ever after Vince Leggett will be able to
experience that place and learn about that place and
experience that history, because of his hard work and
passion,'' Dunn said. ``I'm so glad he got to enjoy that. I
wish he had more time.''