Mr. Crawley was born in Danville, Virginia in 1914. He attended Westmoreland High School in Virginia before attending Hampton Institute for three years and then attended West Virginia State with a major in agriculture. He served in a segregated Army quartermaster unit in the ETO during World War II. After the war, he used the GI Bill to study architectural drafting and opened his own business by the name of Burton & Crawley Contractors.
Donald Van Blake was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, and during the Second World War served in the "Red Ball Express" as a truck driver. After the war, he was active in the Civil Rights Movement and went on to have a career in transportation.
