JOINING VINCE'S CREW

A group of people, including Admiral Vince Leggett pose for Superintendent O'Sullivan's selfie.

Wendy O'Sullivan

By Wendy O’Sullivan, Superintendent, National Park Service - Chesapeake Gateways

It was a crisp fall morning in Annapolis along the Chesapeake Bay when I met Vince Leggett about three months into my role as the new Superintendent of the National Park Service Chesapeake Gateways community assistance program. Vince’s change-maker reputation preceded him yet for me, meeting Vince felt like opening the first chapter of a treasured book. The kind of novel that you can’t put down - the one with dog ears that you share with others and reread over and over.

Our meeting place was classically Annapolis - a windswept street-end park overlooking a working waterfront, where the tide seemed to carry whispers of the past. Vince arrived with his signature hat, Old Bay tote bag, and the warm smile of a storyteller who knew the value and importance of the facts and truths in his tales. We sat talking for several hours that first day, immediately comfortable together as if we were lifelong, dear old friends. It was genuine and authentically Vince.

He recounted stories of the Black watermen who worked the Bay, the oyster harvests that built communities, and the Black owned beaches that once dotted the Bay and east coast, like Carr’s Beach, where Black families gathered during the Civil Rights era to swim, picnic, and dance to the music. “It’s not just history,” I remember he shared with conviction. “It’s identity. It’s community.” He told me the Bay and its rivers didn’t just employ and feed people; it connected them. Those connections, especially the untold African American stories, deserve to be remembered and continued. His words struck me deeply, not only for their truth but for the joyful passion with which he delivered them, reminding me that the Bay is as much a cultural archive and chart to the future as it is a natural, national treasure.

From that day, Vince became both a partner and a mentor, expanding how I viewed the Bay’s importance — its depth, resilience, and capacity to connect us all. Over the years, our friendship deepened, we connected often both in-person and across social media platforms, with Vince sharing his likes and love. Yet Vince wasn’t just cheerleading; he was preserving history and recruiting a varied “crew” to grow and continue his passion for remembrance and justice and hope for the future. I signed up on the spot.

NPS Chesapeake Gateways joined and invested in his mission to save the spaces and elevate the stories important to African Americans whose lives were inextricably tied to the Chesapeake. Vince served as an expert for the NPS in our new Chesapeake Gateways Communities initiative and Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation recently was awarded an NPS Chesapeake Gateways grant related to his signature project, Elktonia/Carrs Beach Heritage Park. And we had more in the works.

I can’t image a world without Vince and feel deep gratitude for the crossing of our paths. His work remains a call to action—a reminder that every voice matters and every effort to preserve inclusive history is a gift to the future. Vince Leggett’s vision will continue to guide us, and I am proud to carry forward his mission as a devoted member of “Vince’s Crew.”

An old mariner's farewell keeps coming to mind, “I’ll let the waves carry my goodbye. See you in the next tide, my friend.”