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Eight wheels, one legacy: skate culture in the Bay Area
Honoring that legacy with a Bay Area pioneer, Richard Humphrey, who helped carry the culture forward on stages, in studios, and on rinks across the country. Humphrey, founder of Rollerdance Academy, is joined by skate instructors, Takiyah Fraklin, and Isaac Farfan.
OAKLAND, Calif. - For many who grew up in the 1980s, Friday night meant one thing: the roller rink.
The lights went low, the bass went high, and for a few hours, the world felt wide open.
But what a lot of people don’t realize is that roller skating in America – the rhythm, the style, the soul of it – is deeply rooted in Black culture.
Origins in segregation
The backstory:
Across the country, including right in the Bay Area, Black skaters were once barred from rinks or restricted to a single night a week.
What we now know as "Soul Night" was once bluntly called "Black Night."
In the 1950s, many rinks opened their doors to the Black community just one night a week. By the 1960s, the name shifted to "Martin Luther King Night" or "Soul Night," but the discrimination didn’t disappear.
Still, the culture flourished. Skating wasn’t just recreation. It was resistance. It was identity. It was freedom in motion.
(Courtesy of Richard Humphrey)
A Pioneer Who Never Stopped Rolling
One of those pioneers that built something beautiful even when the doors were barely open, is Richard Humphrey, head of the Golden Rollers and founder of the Roller Dance Academy.
From 1979 to 1988, Richard was a part of the Golden Rollers, a trio of quad skaters who performed at Golden Gate Park every Sunday. (Courtesy of Richard Humphrey)
For Humphrey, those barriers weren’t abstract, they were lived.
He began skating in the late 1950s, and by the 1970s, as rinks across the country began tightening restrictions and excluding Black skaters, he felt it firsthand.
"I experienced a lot of that. It was heartbreaking," Humphrey said.
He remembers walking into rinks and seeing posted rules and regulations lining the walls – dress codes, behavior policies, restrictions that felt targeted.
"When you walk in the door and there’s signs posted – know this, know that – we knew who those were directed at. It hurt personally," he said. "I’ve seen it, experienced it, and we still go through some of that today."
The signs may look different now. The policies may be subtler. But the memory is still fresh. And the movement is still rolling.
"It’s something that’s kind of in our soul," Humphrey said. "I mean, I started in 1957, but then I got real serious in the early 70s, and I haven’t looked back. And for the people that don’t know, skating is popular all over the world now because of it. So my goal, once I found my niche, was to keep it going."
That soul he speaks of was forged in an era when joy itself was an act of resilience.
Passing the Wheels Forward
For Takiyah Franklin, skating represents both inheritance and intention.
She started young at Hayward’s Valley Vista rink, where a childhood hobby became a lifelong passion. Her path deepened when she began training one-on-one with Richard Humphrey – a connection made through her father’s friendship with the skating pioneer.
What she gained wasn’t just skill. It was perspective.
"I don’t take that for granted," Franklin said.
Takiyah Franklin, poses while at Oakland's Town Park Skatepark. (Courtesy of Takiyah Franklin)
For Franklin, training with Humphrey is about more than mastering steps. It’s about honoring the skaters who endured segregated rinks and limited access so future generations could glide freely.
"Skating is joyful, but it demands discipline. It demands focus. It demands respect for the path that was paved," she said.
Isaac Farfan and Richard Humphrey, both skate instructors with Roller Dance Academy. (Courtesy of Richard Humphrey)
The Next Generation Keeps the Rhythm
Another instructor helping keep Bay Area skate culture alive is Isaac Farfan.
A second-generation San Jose native, Farfan rediscovered his childhood love for skating in 2007. In November 2019, just before quad skates surged back into mainstream popularity during the pandemic, he enrolled in Roller Dance Academy.
A hairdresser-turned-skate-instructor, Farfan made it his mission to bring home the "Sunday school" style lessons he learned from Humphrey – the man who coined the choreographic style known as roller dance.
"I’ve always called myself a roller dancer. So I felt like I kind of coined that term roller dance because that’s what we do, we dance on skates," Humphrey said. "And so that is what stuck with me all these years. And so before the internet, we didn’t have all this media stuff. So in 1996, I created roller dancing and workout on skates and it has stuck ever since."
The Technical — and the Magic
Skating may look effortless, but the mechanics matter.
"It’s a difference in your weight distribution, your balance, because you know the inlines are just a straight line whereas the quads give you a little bit more weight distribution," Franklin said. "But ultimately it’s fun. You know to be able to find your balance and that’s what it’s about. It’s like locking your body, focus right, and then have fun with it."
It’s physics and poetry at the same time. Lock in. Find your center. Then let go.
From Soul Night to the Super Bowl
Humphrey’s legacy doesn’t just live in the rink, it stretches far beyond.
By special request, he even choreographed dance steps for Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi.
And he’s skated alongside Usher — who made history during the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show when he and his crew hit the stage on roller skates.
That night, they didn’t just perform. They turned the field into a roller disco.
Richard Humphrey and Usher skating at 2024 Super Bowl after party in Las Vegas. (Courtesy of Richard Humphrey)
Still Rolling
Black skate culture in the Bay Area isn’t nostalgia. It’s now.
It’s inclusion through rhythm.
It’s resistance on eight wheels.
It’s community in motion.
And for anyone hesitant to lace up a pair of quads, Richard has one message:
"Never say never, because all you need is just some good training, and you can do it."