23/54 PROJECT

Celebrating Black Appalachian Community

Garner

Helen Elizabeth Safewright was born on September 1, 1913, to John and Rena Safewright. She later married Earl Floyd Garner, and together they raised seven children — their sons Eugene and Howard, and their daughters Elsie, Roberta, Mary, Sadie, and Helen. Of their daughters, only Roberta and Helen appear in available records connected to the Corbin et al. v. County School Board of Pulaski County (1947) lawsuit, while little is known about the others. Helen’s mother, Rena Safewright, and her sister, Hattie Mae Safewright Brown, also signed onto the lawsuit on behalf of their own children, reflecting the family’s shared commitment to educational equality. 

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An interactive graphic of the quilt square. The linked information can also be found below.

The center of the quilt square features several cutouts of fabric arranged into the shape of a heart. The assemblage of varying fabrics, none being repeated, highlights how the Garner family is linked to another family from the lawsuit, the Safewrights. Each family member brought their unique characteristics together to form a family unit full of love.

Learn More About the Garner Family

Artifacts by Family Member

Helen Elizabeth Safewright Garner

Summary

Helen Elizabeth Safewright was born on September 1, 1913 to parents John and Rena Safewright. Helen married Earl Floyd Garner and together the Garner’s had seven children. Of those seven children, they had two sons, Eugene and Howard, and five daughters Elsie, Roberta, Mary, Sadie, and Helen.1 Both Helen’s mother, Rena, and sister, Hattie Mae Safewright Brown, were also a part of the 1947 Corbin et al. v. County School Board of Pulaski County, VA. et al. lawsuit signing on behalf of their children.

Symbolic Representation

Safewright Women Photo

Candid photo depicting six older women wearing dresses. One woman is seated in a wheelchair in front of the other women. Each woman is gazing in different directions.
Women of the Safewright family including Helen and her mother Rena Ayers Safewright (courtesy of the Safewright Family).

Roberta Virginia Garner Adams

Summary

Original Virginia Certificate of Marriage for Robert John Adams and Roberta Virginia Garner issued in 1946.
Roberta and John Adams’ Certificate of Marriage (courtesy of Ancestry.com)

Roberta was born on September 16, 1930 in Allisonia to parents Helen and Earl Garner. At the time of the lawsuit Roberta would have been 18 years old. Roberta was a beloved mother, grandmother, and a devoted member of the First Baptist Church on Magazine Street in Pulaski, she exemplified a life of faith. Roberta demonstrated love and dedication to her family.2 In 1946, Roberta married John Robert Adams son of John Sr. and Eula Brown Adams.3 The couple was married for 46 years and they had six children, Ivery Adams Boysaw, Edith Hampton, Sally Inez Adams, Richard Adams, Billy Adams, and James Robert Adams. To cherish her memory, Roberta had several grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren, and three great-great grandchildren.4

Black and white family portrait. Seated in the front row are a young man, his mother, and his father. Standing in the second row is a young woman with her hand on her brother's shoulder.
Roberta and John Adams with two of their children (courtesy of Edith Hampton)

Symbolic Representation

Named Participant List

Roberta, her brother Eugene and their father Earl Garner, signed onto the 1947 Corbin et al. v. County School Board of Pulaski County, VA. et al. lawsuit. The named plaintiff list from the 1947 lawsuit reads “Roberta Garner and Jean Garner infants by Earl. F Garner their father and next friend.”5

Text from a 1947 court case plaintiff list which reads "Roberta Garner and Jean Garner infants by Earl. F Garner their father and next friend,"
Corbin et al. v. County School Board of Pulaski County, VA. et al. Plaintiff List (courtesy of the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Virginia Roanoke Division)

First Baptist Church

Roberta was a member of the First Baptist Church on Magazine Street in Pulaski, which was founded in the 1870s. The church’s current site, which still stands, was purchased from the Harmon family in 1967. The First Baptist Church on Magazine Street is a historically Black church that has served the Black community and the larger Pulaski community for generations. The legacy of the First Baptist Church continues to flourish to this day in the Pulaski community.6

Ivery Boysaw (neé Adams)

Summary

Black and white yearbook image of a young woman posing for her senior portrait.
Ivery Jean Adams 1965 (courtesy of “Maple Leaves” yearbook Dublin High School)

Ivery Adams was born on September 9, 1947 to parents Roberta and John Adams in Allisonia. Ivery graduated from Dublin High School in 1965. Ivery had three children Jamille, Milton, and Donald Boysaw. 7

Ivery and her sister Edith worked at Radford Army and Ammunition Plant for several years. Radford Army and Ammunition Plant was constructed in 1940 to support the supply of “propellants and energetics” for the Second World War and subsequently served an important role in production of propellants for the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The very large plant is government-owned and contractor-operated, stretching across both Montgomery and Pulaski County totalling nearly 7,000 acres. For several years Hercules Inc. served as the contractor for the operations at the “Arsenal.” In 1995, Alliant Techsystems became the arsenal’s new contractor.8 More recently, much pressure has been applied by Virginia Tech students, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the Town of Blacksburg and more for the plant to address potentially environmentally hazardous operations that it performs.9

Ivery began her work at the plant in 1980 serving until her tragic death on the job in 1991. After a “regular procedure” involving Ivery and her coworker Mary Duncan, “unloading ether from a rail car to a storage tank.” The two were found by other RAAP employees “overcome by ether vapors” and were taken to the hospital where doctors declared their passings.10

Symbolic Representation

Ivery Boysaw Image

Black and white portrait of a woman positioned with her hands in her lap gazing at the camera wearing a white blouse and white dress.
Ivery Adams Boysaw (courtesy of Edith Hampton)

Edith Hampton (neé Adams)

Summary

Black and white senior year yearbook photo of two individuals Edith and James Adams. The young lady's portrait to the left, she is seated smiling with her teeth gazing to the left. The young man's portrait is to the right where he is dressed in a white suit jacket and black bowtie.
Edith Hampton and James Robert Adams, 1968 (courtesy of “Maple Leaves” yearbook Dublin High School)

Edith Adams Hampton was born on July 5, 1950 to parents Roberta and John Adams. Edith is one of six siblings, graduating in 1968 from Dublin High School alongside her brother James. Tragically, just months after graduating, James passed away in an untimely drowning accident, his relatives honor his memory through the lives they continue to build.11

Edith married Emmett Hampton, her “sweetheart” since age five, and the couple has one son Richard.12 Edith has had a distinguished career as a public servant, serving on Dublin’s Town Council for several years. Her first run for office was in 1998, in her advertisement in the Southwest Times, she promised to be “energetic, dedicated, informed, truthful, and honest.13 Even prior to her career as a councilwoman, Edith and her husband demonstrated a deep commitment to service as members of and in leadership roles for local organizations in Dublin including the church. 14

Symbolic Representation

Chicken Feet

Roberta and John Adams raised their children on a farm in Allisonia, where they also raised chickens.15 Edith Hampton their daughter recounted this memory of her family’s farm which is represented on the quilt as chicken feet tracks trailing across the right edge of the quilt square.

Radford University Mascot

Edith Hampton attended Radford University16, which was founded in 1910 as an all-women’s school for aspiring teachers.17 In the 1970s, Radford University adopted its mascot, the “Highlander,” who wears a kilt. This kilt represents the “Scottish-Irish heritage of Southwest Virginia.”18

Garner Family Descendants

Symbolic Representation

Kareen Jabar Patterson & Hesus Hickman Photo

These two men, Kareen and Hesus, are descendants of the Garner Family, carrying on the legacy of their courageous ancestors who participated in the 1947 Corbin et al. v. County School Board of Pulaski County, VA. et al. lawsuit.

Family Photo

Photo of 13 individuals standing outside in a parking lot. The group is a mix of adults and young children smiling.
Garner and Safewright Family Descendants (courtesy of the Garner Family)

This image depicts several descendants of the Garner and Safewright family, including Kareem Jabbar Patterson, Hesus Hickman, Noah Patterson, Mandela Adams, Ivy Adams, Aubreanna Martin, Kimberly Adams, Skyler Patterson, Ava Edmonds, Zaiden Adams, and Zyler Adams. 

Sources

  1. “Earl Floyd Garner.” The Roanoke Times. April 23, 1971.  ↩︎
  2. “Obituaries – Roberta V. Adams.” The Southwest Times. March 18, 2014. Page 3. Accessed on Virginia Chronicle Library of Virginia Digital Newspaper Archive. ↩︎
  3. Commonwealth of Virginia Certificate of Marriage for Robert John Adams and Roberta Virginia Garner. December 16, 1946. File number 46059. Pulaski, Virginia. Accessed on Ancestry.com. ↩︎
  4. “Earl Floyd Garner.” The Roanoke Times. April 23, 1971. ↩︎
  5. Corbin et al. v. County School Board of Pulaski County, VA. et al. 84 F. Supp. 253 (W.D. Va. 1949) May 2, 1949. ↩︎
  6. “Church Anniversary to be Celebrated.” The Southwest Times. November 21, 1969. Page 2. Accessed on Virginia Chronicle Library of Virginia Digital Newspaper Archive. ↩︎
  7. “Area Deaths Ivory A. Boysaw.” The Southwest Times. October 20, 1991. Page A2. Accessed on Virginia Chronicle Library of Virginia Digital Newspaper Archive. ↩︎
  8. Radford Army Ammunition Plant. n.d. “History.” U.S. Army Radford Army Ammunition Plant. Accessed July 28, 2025. https://www.jmc.army.mil/Radford/History.aspx. ↩︎
  9. Virginia Tech ACR Fralin Life Science. 2018. “The Historical Timeline | Radford Army Ammunition Plant Historical Timeline.” Virginia Tech. https://acr.fralinlifesci.vt.edu/2018-RAAP/RAAP-Timeline.html. ↩︎
  10. Gordon, Marty. “Two RAAP employees found dead.” The Southwest Times. October 20, 1991. Page A1-A2. Accessed on Virginia Chronicle Library of Virginia Digital Newspaper Archive. ↩︎
  11. “Youth Drowns in Allisonia.” The Southwest Times. August 26, 1968. Page 1. Accessed on Virginia Chronicle Library of Virginia Digital Newspaper Archive. ↩︎
  12. “Pulaski County Family Life, Hampton.” The Southwest Times. June 5, 1986. Page 2. Accessed on Virginia Chronicle Library of Virginia Digital Newspaper Archive. ↩︎
  13. Hampton, Edith. “Paid Advertisement” The Southwest Times. April 26, 1998. Page A5. Accessed on Virginia Chronicle Library of Virginia Digital Newspaper Archive. ↩︎
  14. “Pulaski County Family Life, Hampton.” The Southwest Times. ↩︎
  15. Interview with Edith Hampton. Panel Discussion Interview. Calfee Center Digital Archives. 2022. ↩︎
  16. Ibid. ↩︎
  17. “History.” Radford University. Accessed April 24, 2025. https://www.radford.edu/about/history.html. ↩︎
  18. “The Highlander.” Radford Athletics. Accessed April 24, 2025. https://radfordathletics.com/sports/2015/6/5/GEN_0605154140.aspx#:~:text=SPORTS-,The%20Highlander,the%20athletic%20teams%20in%201979. ↩︎