More than 55 years after he graduated from Great Bridge High School as one of its first Black students, Lora Hinton was recognized as an exemplary citizen at a June Chesapeake City Council meeting.
He’s known for being the first African American scholarship football player at Louisiana State University.
Though he lives in Louisiana now, Hinton returned to Chesapeake for the class of 1971’s 55-year reunion — and to be honored as an exemplary citizen by Chesapeake Mayor Rick West, who praised him for establishing a foundation of inclusion and respect.
West said Hinton is one of the most accomplished athletes to come from Virginia and “(earned) respect not only for his athletic ability but his quiet strength and dignity, with which he navigated a rapidly changing chapter in American history.”
As a child in Chesapeake, Hinton always dreamed of having the opportunity to go to Great Bridge High School.
Hinton and other children in his neighborhood sometimes had to play without real basketballs or baseballs. Instead, they tied rags or socks together because there wasn’t much else to do besides playing sports and riding bikes, he said.
He recalled seeing stories of Great Bridge’s athletic success in the newspapers.
In the late 1960s, following Virginia’s widespread resistance to integrating schools and a ruling to dismantle dual school systems in Green v. School Board of New Kent County, Hinton had the opportunity to be a part of that success.
He said Southeastern Elementary School, which was originally built for African American elementary students, didn’t have a structured sports program. They were lucky to play three softball games a year against another school. They had only used textbooks. Hinton said he saw a brand-new book for the first time in 6th grade.
“We were just happy to get what we were able to get, and go where we were able to go, you know, to leave school and go to another school to play ball,” Hinton said. “Man, that was unbelievable.”
He went on to play football at Great Bridge as one of the school’s first Black students. He began his freshman year on the junior varsity team before moving up to the varsity team as its starting running back in 10th grade.
It wasn’t easy attending a school that had only recently opened its doors to students who weren’t white.
“We went through some trials and tribulations as it relates to the integration part, and God bless the administration,” Hinton said. “They did what they could, but you know, there was no manual on how to handle all of that.”
Hinton said that after a while, people began to realize that he was “a regular guy,” just like everyone else.
“I just think that my parents instilled the temperament in me to be able to handle the part that was nasty and ugly,” Hinton said. “The racism and so forth, you know, that still existed, even though segregation was over.”
Everyone at Great Bridge wanted to succeed, Hinton said, and students had a “winning” attitude.
Hinton succeeded there, too. He was the sophomore class president, student council association vice president and captain of the football team that made it to a state championship. He played basketball, football and ran track. He participated in his high school’s ROTC program and the French club.
Despite a knee injury in high school, Hinton was recruited by LSU as the school’s first Black player on a football scholarship and started as a running back for two years. In 2021, he was inducted into the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
Hinton said receiving the award was “unbelievable.” He’s now working on a book about his experience at LSU and growing up in Great Bridge. It’s still in its early stages.
“You don’t think about all of that, you know, (that) you’re making history,” Hinton said. “And, you know, affecting generations to come later, and I never thought about any of this in that regard.”