SRC 17
Interviewee: LaVerne Byrd Smith
Interviewer: Brian Ward
Date: February 27, 2003


W: This is Brian Ward on February 27, 2003. This is an interview with LaVerne Byrd
 Smith in Richmond, Virginia for the University of Florida Oral History Program
 Southern Regional Council Project. Thank you ever so much for sparing me
 some time to talk this afternoon.

S: I'm delighted to do this.

W: What I would like to do is just to start by perhaps telling a little bit about your
 background prior to getting involved with the Richmond Council on Human
 Relations. Just tell me a little bit about where you were born and where you
 were raised.

S: I was born in Richmond, Virginia south of the James, which was formerly a town
 called Manchester. They consolidated with Richmond, so I think I was born in
 Richmond. It had become Richmond by that time.

W: Were you educated in the public school system?

S: I was educated in the public school and went to college here at Virginia Union
 University. I got a masters at Virginia State University and a doctorate at the
 University of Maryland.

W: Tell me about what did you major in as an undergraduate.

S: As an undergraduate I majored in history and education, but not history
 education. When I finished I taught at elementary school first, but I have taught
 at all levels of education.

W: When you went on to do your masters what was that in?

S: It was in reading and educational psychology. At each level I had two majors.
 Then, I went on to get my doctorate in education curriculum and instruction.

W: This was at the University of Maryland, was it the College Park?

S: Yes.

W: Just tell me a little bit about your parents and sort of where you were in the social
 world of Manchester and Richmond.