Vera Avery · Sewanee: Black Lives Matter Oral History Project

Title

Vera Avery (Abstract)

Interviewee/ Narrator

Vera Avery

Interviewer

Lizzy Ray

Date

October 15, 2023

Location of the Interview

Zoom

Length

55 minutes, 52 seconds

Abstract

Vera Avery was born in Cleveland, North Carolina in 1960 and states that when she was a child, her community was centered around the school and the church, with the majority of her activities surrounding the church. One thing that Vera mentions multiple times, was how in 1968 she had to integrate, “had” being the word that is repeated, into the white school. Her mom was a firm believer in separate, but equal, so she wanted the Cleveland area to improve their community school, instead of having her children move to a new school environment. Vera also recalls how her mom was always at the forefront of the community and involved in almost everything; her mom even went up to Washington, DC, without telling her children, to participate in the March on Washington.
Vera talks about a distinct memory involving the KKK marching through her neighborhood. Her mom and oldest brother hid the whole family in the attic and stood guard, scared of what the KKK was going to do. With the modern day Black Lives Matter movement, Vera stays on top of her news outlets, even branching out to news outlets she would not usually read, to get a varied perspective from around the country.
Her opinion of the BLM movement is that people are threatened by the movement, because this new generation has decided that they will not sit back and watch. Vera talks about how Cleveland, North Carolina had a very small reaction to the BLM movement, but they did have a small march which was impactful on the small town scale. Vera hopes that in the future, the subject of BLM is a topic of conversation in schools, so that all people can be informed. She also hopes the future of BLM involves more minorities coming together, to work to better each other's futures.