Breaking Barriers, Building Legacy: James Sansom ’76 Honored as Distinguished Alumnus

Each year as part of Alumni Weekend, the Ravenscroft School Alumni Association presents its highest honor, the Distinguished Alumni Award. Established in 1989, the award recognizes an individual for distinguished service and loyalty to Ravenscroft and to the greater Raleigh-Durham community through their contributions and personal achievements.

This year, James Sansom ’76 is the association’s Distinguished Alumni honoree.

Recognized at Ravenscroft as a standout in both basketball and soccer—he was inducted into the Alumni Association Sports Hall of Fame in 1998—as well as a strong student and music enthusiast, Sansom went on to a successful career as a banker and philanthropist. He is also notable for being the first Black student to attend and graduate from Ravenscroft.

Beginnings as a Raven

Sansom attended Catholic school through the eighth grade and expected to go to Cardinal Gibbons High School as his sisters had. But in 1972, the mission of the order of Dominican sisters (who were the teaching staff at Cardinal Gibbons) changed, which meant there would be no teachers for James’ class. His parents informed him that he would be attending a different private institution, about thirty miles away from home, Ravenscroft.

The country as a whole was experiencing significant social unrest. It was just four years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and amid the rise of the Black Panther movement. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act had just passed, and headlines were dominated by the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War.

Elizabeth Toney Melvin ’76, Sansom’s classmate and 2002 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, recalled, “My first impression of James when he began at Ravenscroft in ninth grade was how brave he was to come to an all-white school.”

Sansom comes from a long lineage of trailblazers. His great-grandfathers, Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore—the first Black physician in Durham—and John Merrick, founder of Lincoln Hospital, were instrumental in establishing two landmark Black-owned Durham businesses: North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and Mechanics and Farmers Bank.

James Sansom ’76 and his senior prom date and still good friend, Carmen Taylor Martin ’76.

“My parents were high on academics, and I guess they landed on Ravenscroft," Sansom said. "Now, I wasn’t exactly excited about that, because my friends were at Sanderson [High School] and the public schools. There was just a lot of anticipation with that move. But I had an agreement with my dad that if I had any trouble, I would again be able to select my own high school.”

Looking back, Sansom said he would make the same decision again.

Melvin, who shared a love of soul and jazz music with Sansom, remembered his easygoing nature: “He fit right in and hung out with everyone in our grade. ‘Captain Smooth’ in his shiny Volvo,” she joked.

Sansom explained, “I like people, you know, normally, and I can gravitate and hopefully speak to anyone and find some commonality.”

Fellow soccer co-captain and friend, Steve Nielsen ’76, wrote of Sansom in his 2022 nomination letter:

As our country continues to struggle with conversations about race, race relationships and the experiential differences between whites and people of color, it is time to recognize the first brave individual who broke the color barrier at our North Raleigh campus.

James Sansom was an integral part of all things Ravenscroft. He excelled in the classroom, on our athletic fields and courts and most importantly he excelled at being a great friend to all.

James Sansom deserves to be recognized for his role in shaping what Ravenscroft has come to represent: an institution respectful of diversity, open to new experiences and fundamentally good.

Nielsen added, "Any one of the 98 people we graduated with will have a good story to tell about their relationship with James Sansom."

Sansom can rattle off the names of every teacher, coach and mentor he met during his high school career.

“It was hard to pick out favorite teachers because they were all high caliber," he said. "They were just great people, let alone great teachers.”

During his time as a Raven, James Sansom ’76 was a standout athlete in both basketball and soccer.

After Ravenscroft

Following graduation, Sansom attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he played soccer and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration. He later earned a Master of Business Administration from Atlanta University.

Over the course of his career as a senior banker in several cities, Sansom returned to his family's founding institution, Mechanics and Farmers Bank, where he served on the executive team. He also served on Ravenscroft's Board of Trustees from 2015 to 2018 and supported the Durham Nativity School, where the Durham Nativity James Sansom Distinguished Graduate Award now helps support promising Black students.

“One endeavor I take a lot of pride in has been my relationship with Durham Nativity School. It's an independent middle school from grades fifth through eighth. It's all boys and it's in Durham. And it's been around since 2001. We've already had eighth graders that have matriculated to Ravenscroft and have graduated from Ravenscroft over the years. So that connection I'm very proud of and want to continue,” Sansom reflected.

When notified of winning the Distinguished Alumni Award, the recognition was less about individual achievement and more about shared experience.

“There’s so many others, that are worthy of this award,” he said. “But I do accept it for all of our class of ’76. I would like to accept it on behalf of all of those in our class.”

In 1998, James Sansom ’76 was inducted in the Alumni Association Sports Hall of Fame.

James Sansom ’76