Uncrowned Community Builders

Florence Hargrave Curtis, a native of Buffalo, is the daughter of the late Ashley S. and Annie Whitehead Hargrave. She began her education in the Buffalo Public Schools. She has an Associate's degree in Applied Sciences and Nursing from Erie Community College ; a Bachelor of Science degree in Community and Human Services with a concentration in Studies in Chemical Dependence; and a Master of Arts degree in Culture and Policy Studies. She is the mother of one daughter, Dawn C. Roberts, and the grandmother of three, Alvin, Alicia, and John Roberts.

Florence's fascination with her second great-grandmother, Landonia Epps, led to her most unprecedented scholarly achievement, Daughter Be Somebody - a book that traces her family's history from 1740 through 1997. It is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the determination of two families to break the shackles of slavery and overcome its legacy through knowledge and education. It is a powerful and dramatic source of genealogical information that warms the heart, brings tears to ones eyes, but most of all it takes the reader on a magnificent journey into yesterday.

For Ms. Curtis, there is nothing about which she is more passionate than African American history. For this reason, she has written five other books. Three of these books are tools for the researcher to make their search a little easier and help knock down the brick wall that every historian confronts in his or her search. The other two, He Heard My Cry and Everlasting Memories are books of original inspirational poetry.

Ms. Curtis has searched her maternal lineage back to 1066 AD and her paternal ancestry back to 1634 AD. For her, the search never ends for there are always new roads to explore and new visions of old materials to document. In addition to Daughter Be Somebody, she has written He Heard My Cry; Landonia Epps, a Paper Trail of Her Times and Travels; Halifax Country, North Carolina Coroner's Inquests 1841-1891; Everlasting Memories; and In the Footsteps of Our Forefathers, the Churches Where They Worshipped, the Graves In Which They Slumber. Her books have found a home at the Schomburg Center for research in Black Culture; Duke University's John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American Documentation; Virginia State University; Saint Paul's College, Lawrenceville, Virginia; Halifax County, North Carolina Library; as well as other educational venues.

Ms. Curtis has spoken at numerous universities and for many genealogical societies on the importance and value of family research.

She notes, "I have searched the pages of the past for a glimpse into yesterday, to make sense of today, and to find meaning in tomorrow."