Virginia Memory, Library of Virginia
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THIS DAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY

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March 19, 1937

Byrd, Susie R.C. (Rosa Catherine), 1899—1960, Interviewer, Interview of Mrs. Patience M. Avery, March 19, 1937, Computer file: 1997, Virginia Negro Studies Project Interviews, WPA Life Histories Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. Byrd, Susie R.C. (Rosa Catherine), 1899—1960, Interviewer, Interview of Mrs. Patience M. Avery, March 19, 1937, Computer file: 1997, Virginia Negro Studies Project Interviews, WPA Life Histories Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. Byrd, Susie R.C. (Rosa Catherine), 1899—1960, Interviewer, Interview of Mrs. Patience M. Avery, March 19, 1937, Computer file: 1997, Virginia Negro Studies Project Interviews, WPA Life Histories Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. Byrd, Susie R.C. (Rosa Catherine), 1899—1960, Interviewer, Interview of Mrs. Patience M. Avery, March 19, 1937, Computer file: 1997, Virginia Negro Studies Project Interviews, WPA Life Histories Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. Byrd, Susie R.C. (Rosa Catherine), 1899—1960, Interviewer, Interview of Mrs. Patience M. Avery, March 19, 1937, Computer file: 1997, Virginia Negro Studies Project Interviews, WPA Life Histories Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Susie Byrd Interviewed Mrs. Patience M. Avery

In 1937 Susie Rosa Catherine Byrd (1899–1960) interviewed Patience M. Avery (b. 1863). Born a slave, Avery lived with an abusive foster mother as a girl. She ran away, was taken in by a Colonel Avery, and married one of his former slaves. Susie Byrd worked for the Virginia Writer's Project, 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. Byrd taught in public schools, ran a nursery school, and taught a WPA adult night school class, while working toward a college degree.