Roanoke, The City with a Star

A colored pencil and ink sketch depicts a Black family standing arm in arm by a historic Norfolk and Western railway crossing, looking up at the Roanoke Star, a man-made illuminated star at the top of Mill Mountain. Roanoke based artist David Ramey Sr. drew this illustration—with many others—for his not yet published book Gainsboro Road and Beyond, which recollects his childhood growing up in Gainsboro before urban renewal projects demolished the neighborhood.