May 3, 2009

Under a canopy of tall pines last week at Norfolk Botanical Gardens, a speaker read off the names of African Americans who had labored there seven decades ago, who had toiled in heat and cold, in swampy, buggy, snake-infested swampland. As the names were called out, descendants who had some to honor them hugged and applauded. And toward the end of the list, as a woman’s name was spoken, someone cried out, “Go, Grandma!”

It was that personal, as if, in finally being recognized, the spirits of the 200 women and 20 men who cleared land near the airport and planted thousands of azaleas and rhododendrons were present.

The occasion was the dedication of the WPA Memorial Garden, recognizing the efforts of the workers who labored for four years, beginning in 1938, to build the first patch of the Botanical Garden . It was part of Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, paying 25 cents an hour for what was back-breaking labor.

After several months of searching, Norfolk Botanical has identified 54 of the workers, and hundreds of their descendants came for the ceremonies. But the star of the show was 89-year-old Mary Elizabeth Ferguson, the only known survivor. Surrounded by five children, several grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, she beamed with pride.

Dressed in pink and wearing a wrist corsage, she raised her arms to the crowd that stood to cheer her. “I love every one of you,” she said.

She helped Mayor Paul Fraim and others unveil a larger-than-life bronze sculpture of a woman digging with a shovel. “It could be me,” she said afterwards while inspecting the sculpture. But, 19 at the time, she admitted she wasn’t the hardest worker. “I clowned around,” she said. “I loved to dance and I loved to sing.”

In June 1938, the WPA gave the city a grant of $76, 278 to begin the project. The workers cleared out dense vegetation with shovels, hoes, pickaxes and iron-wheeled wheelbarrows, carting off the equivalent of 150 truckloads of dirt to build a levee for a small lake. Then, early the following year, they began planting 4,000 azaleas, 2000 rhododendrons, several thousand shrubs and trees and 100 bushels of daffodils.

It was first named the Azalea Garden, then Norfolk Municipal Garden and finally, in 1958, Norfolk Botanical Garden. It now spans 155 acres, with 12 miles of pathways and more than 30 themed gardens. Partly because of its WPA history, it is recognized as a Virginia Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

But the women and men who began the garden had never been recognized and might not have been had the Garden not looked for ways to attract a greater diversity of visitors, and began digging into its origins.

Martha Williams, an educator and member of the Botanical Gardens Board of Trustees, said the workers toiled from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day, but often stayed until dusk. Many of them walked all the way to and from work from the outskirts of downtown Norfolk. Some, unable to afford child care, worked with children strapped to their backs. They tied rags to their hands in order to push the heavy iron wheelbarrows.

Some may have been migrant farm workers, but at least the ones whose names have been found were from Norfolk.

“They should have been honored before they passed,” Williams said.

At the base of the statue is part of a poem, “The Garden,” by Gracie Anthony:

If some could see the beauty today,
It was worth it all, they would surely say.

Bronze sculpture, “Breaking Ground,” by Kathleen Farrell. Photo by Paul Clancy