ROLLING ON THE EAST COAST - Part 3

With this article we close out our series "Rolling on the East Coast," which only touched on some of the history of that region. Other skaters are also working to record the faces, voices and experiences of numbers of skaters on the East Coast and also nationwide, whether on video, audio or in print.

One such skater is Tasha Klusmann of Washington,D.C. She is Coordinator for Our Family Skate Association (OFSA)which was founded by her mother, Jackie Morgan. OFSA is a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote "family values and community through various cultural arts and athletic activities, particularly roller skating," states their newsletter which is published four times per year.

Tasha is currently working in conjunction with Howard University to establish a National African American Roller Skating Archive to be based at that historical Black university. "We are doing a video documentary of the history of roller skating and have gathered information about skaters and rinks from the late 1940's to present...With such a huge amount of information we felt it important to assure its safekeeping and accessibility, therefore we are working with Howard University to set up an archive," she said.

Part of that rich East Coast history are the skate groups that were quite popular in the past but can scarcely be found today in cities like Baltimore, home of the Roller Supreme Skate Club (RSSC).

RST had the opportunity to speak at length with that club's president, Derrick Craddock and we share some of that interview in this month's One-on-One feature.

RSSC skating in unison during a competition

These clubs were known for skating together in synchronized fashion, unlike skate clubs across the nation today who are more "organizational" type groups than "skating" groups. That's one main difference Derrick sees between skate clubs then and skate clubs now. Read more of his observations, insights and recollections as we go...