THIS DAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY
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February 07, 1939
A Social-Ethnic Study Was Received in the WPA Office
Lucille B. Jayne (d. 1945) interviewed an African-American blacksmith and his wife in Capahosic. Her description of the couple and their lives was received in the office on February 7, 1939. Virginia Writers Project workers engaged in recording life histories, social-ethnic studies, and youth studies between 1938 and 1941. The Writer's Project was the state-sponsored division of the Federal Writers' Project, which in turn was a branch of the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal relief program of the federal government. Staff members compiled about 1,300 reports describing Virginia people.