Black attainments in music and athletics, so visible at a national level, find winning echoes in Sandy Spring. Out of Brighton, for example, came Benny Waters, who for most of his 90-plus years has played the alto saxophone and clarinet to standing-ovation audiences in Europe and America. Local black baseball players, long limited by the color barrier, enjoyed brushes with the big leagues by playing sandlot and Negro League baseball. Robert H. Hill played second base and, in travels with the Sandy Spring All-Stars, became a friend of Jackie Robinson. One of the All-Stars' superstars was Russell Awkard, who moved up to play with two teams of the National Negro League. "I would have liked a shot at the major leagues," he once said. "I think I could have played at that level. I wouldn't have been an outstanding player, but I think I could have been an average player. I guess I'll never know."

The Sandy Spring Melody Makers gained regional fame in the 1930s and '40s as a cappella singers of gospel and spirituals. They are, from left, standing: Richard Love, John Hopkins, Richard Hill, and Robert H. Hill; seated, Vernon Hill, William Bishop, and Bernard Hill. Robert H. Hill also sang with William and Charles Campbell and Sunn Jackson in the Harmony Four Quartet. In1935 it became the first all-black vocal group to sing on radio, on a now-defunct station in Frederick.

The Sandy Spring Odd Fellows band rehearses in the early 1950s. They are, from left, Charlie Campbell, Leslie Gaines, Russell Bacon, Robert Awkard, George Awkard, George Cook, Herman Askins, and Edgar "Cotton" Thomas. The band leader is Herbert Stith, musical director at Rockville's Carver High where the group rehearses. Founded decades ago, the Sandy Spring Odd Fellows provide assistance for widows, orphans, and the poor, particularly through baskets of food and clothing given at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The old Odd Fellows Hall, next to Sharp Street Church, has been abandoned and is being considered as an historic site.

Seven Sandy Springers starred on the Legionaires, an American Legion team of the late 1940s. The team played during the last decade of the famed Negro Leagues--black teams that barnstormed the nation during the hardship days of Jim Crow. After Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947, black athletes increasingly found berths with the Majors, and the Negro leagues died out. Team members, from front: the Israel brothers Clarence, Elbert, and mascot Freddie of Rockville, James Baker of Norbeck, Bill Williams of Rockville; second row: Walter Williams of Spencerville, James Slater of Colesville, Thomas Snowden of Sandy Spring, Charles Smith of Olney, Dewey Israel, Russell Awkard of Cloverly, and James Riggs (standing) of Holly Grove; rear, Carl Webster of Wheaton and Walker Hill and Bud Harper of Rockville. Russell Awkard and Clarence Israel played semi-pro baseball with the Negro Leagues, and Elbert Israel played on a major league farm team.