Editor, Gazette-Journal:

“Only you/Cared when I needed a friend/Believed in me through thick and thin/This song is for you/Filled with love and gratitude”—The Stylistics, “You make me feel brand new”

I just learned a secret most Black folks of Gloucester have known since before America started bombing Hitler and Hirohito: Gloucester was a seriously jumping place from 1941 to 1977.

Recently I was blessed to speak with a few local citizens about their upcoming first “Annual Tribute to Leon Gregory’s Legacy for Gloucester Citizens,” which is being held at the Abingdon Ruritan Club (8784 Guinea Road) on Oct. 14 from 6 to 10 p.m., tickets $45, with speakers (Gregory’s twin sons, Leon Jr., entrepreneur, and Darius, educator). Dinner from 6-8 p.m. And dancing to performers Back N Da Day of Richmond, 8 to 10.

Well before “Elvis,” Rock-n-Roll’s Founding Fathers and Mothers regularly dropped in on Leon Gregory’s Wagon Wheel in Hayes (after dining at cousin Waldron’s nearby Stokes Ta...