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A certificate dated April 4, 1928, records the organization of Troop 75, the first Negro Boy Scout unit in the Richmond area. On this document, Wiley A. Hall is identified as the founding Scoutmaster. Armstrong High School teachers John L. Nixon, C. A. Lindsey and Kearney C. Manning are named as troop committeemen. The charter was approved in the days of Charles Weaver, Scout Executive for the Richmond Area Council. It has been preserved by Anthony J. Binga, who as a boy was one of the original group of Scouts in Troop 75.

On May 1, 1928, twelve boys entered Troop 75, becoming the first Negro Boy Scouts in Richmond. In the archives of the Robert E. Lee Council, an enrollment card for the troop lists these youths as: David Alexander, aged 15; Anthony Binga, 15; Branch Bowman, 15; James Cephas, 14; Russell Gilpin, 15; Alfred Horsley, 11 (RWF: should be 15); James Jackson, 12; Harold Jordan, 15; William Paxton, 12; Joseph Sircus, 15; Junius Taylor, 14; and Carlisle Williams, 14.

Troop 75 was sponsored by the Colored Playground and Recreation Association. As the only unit in the Council that was not sponsored by a church, Troop 75 had a somewhat ambiguous "independent" status. Negro boys from diverse neighborhoods in the city were members of the troop. Anthony J. Binga recalls that, although the Colored Playground and Recreation Association was the institutional sponsor of the troop, early Boy Scout activities took place at Armstrong High School, then housed in a building at Leigh and Prentiss Streets. On the Scout enrollment card of May 1, 1929, the sponsoring institution is even misidentified as Armstrong High School. Curiously, the address indicated on that document is "East Clay Street" -- which was not the school's location. A possible explanation for these contradictions is supplied by James B. Cephas, also one of Troop 75's founding members. By Cephas' recollection, meetings first took place at 00 Clay Street, which in 1928 was the Urban League office. Cephas says, furthermore, that 00 Clay Street was the Community Center before it moved to Charity Street. According to him, Scout meetings were in a large room on the building's first floor. The memories are reconciled by adding Binga's observation that the Colored Recreation and Playground Association's "Community Center" was very busy as the focal point of a wide variety of athletic, cultural, educational and social activities: Armstrong High School became the actual site of the first year's Scouting functions, perhaps after the initial gatherings had been scheduled at 00 Clay Street.

Without question, Troop 75's existence depended on the art of improvisation. For the Armstrong High School meetings, says Binga, a janitor allowed the Boy Scouts to enter the building after school hours, and reserved a spare closet for the storage of troop equipment. A few years later, after the Colored Playground and Recreation Association had constructed a gymnasium at 112 West Charity Street, Scouting activities relocated there. This Community Center was located in an area that is now the Gilpin Court housing development. By many accounts, there was some sort of event every day at 112 West Charity Street.

Echo Lake, a beautiful campsite with a large body of water, became available to Negro Scouters from Richmond during the years 1929-1933. Boys could swim, fish and enjoy nature in Glen Allen, Virginia. The property was owned by the Jones family, who generously allowed the Scouts to use the pleasant acreage as an unofficial campground. Another camping spot was Valley Grove, north of Ashland.

Arthur L. "Stretch" Gardner became Scoutmaster of Troop 75 in 1929. He served as a counselor and swimming instructor for the boys in his and other early Negro troops. "Stretch Gardner would pace off 100 yards along the banks of Echo Lake so we'd have a notion of the distances we were swimming," remembers Anthony Binga. "If I learned anything from Stretch Gardner, it was to never swim more than half the distance you thought you had the energy to maneuver. This is because you've still got to swim back to shore that distance." Binga says Gardner's advice is a principle be has used throughout life in many fields of endeavor -- never to extend yourself beyond your ability to retrace your steps.

Echo Lake was used by a variety of Negroes for recreation. The Boy Scouts conducted their activities on one side of the body of water. Binga cites an early act of heroism by a Negro Boy Scout: There was no diving board at Echo Lake. A youth who was not a Scout and who couldn't swim dove into the water from out of a tree, wearing an inflated inner tube around his body. When he hit the water, the tube formed a figure eight, and the boy got caught in this, head down. Boy Scout John Wilson swam across Echo Lake to the side used by the general public, and managed to save this boy from almost certain drowning.

Binga gives an illustration of the resourcefulness of these Negro Boy Scouts. One of the Scouts, Branch Bowman, had a father who worked for a Mr. Hall, who was the president of the First National Bank. Hall owned a home on Riverside Drive in Chesterfield County. Bowman's father got permission for Troop 75 to camp on Hall's property, which contained a large pond as part of a beautiful granite quarry. Binga says the boys swam in this pond, which had water so clear, one could see more than ten feet below the surface.

Harry S. Crawford followed Gardner as Scoutmaster in 1931. A man who was small in stature, Crawford was soft spoken, but firm. Binga recollects that Harry Crawford brought some of the military aspects to Scouting -- Troop 75 practiced marching and drilling, which encouraged discipline and organization in the unit. Crawford devoted much of his time to Scouting, directing large amounts of his personal energy toward the cultivation of the youth movement. Scoutmaster Crawford and B. Franklin Kersey led Troop 75 to several National Jamborees, including the first one in Washington, D.C., in 1937. Harry Crawford served as District Commissioner for several years and received the Silver Beaver Award in 1947.

Dr. James E. Jackson was another fine example of dedication to Scouting by Negro adults. This professional man frequently closed his drug store during the afternoon so he could have time presiding at Courts of Honor for Troop 75 and other units that were organized.

The first Negro in the South to advance to the rank of Eagle Scout was James E. Jackson, Jr., son of the pharmacist, and one of the original group of boys in Richmond's Troop 75. Later on in life, James Cephas became a business manager at Virginia State College. During World War II, Harold Jordan was an attache on the U.S. diplomatic staff in the Virgin Islands. Junius Taylor became a physician in Detroit. Russell "Box" Gilpin later worked with the Post Office. Branch Bowman pursued a career as a commercial artist in New York City. William N. Paxton, Jr., retired as an officer of the Virginia Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company. Anthony Binga has distinguished himself as a funeral home director, and has been active as a key figure in community affairs for many years.

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