Prudence Curry was the first director of the George Washington Carver Branch Library. Carver was constructed in 1929 as the African American library of San Antonio, Texas under Jim-Crow-era racial segregation.
Archival Seedling D.L. Grant is building an archival collection on the life of Ms. Curry. Grant is the current manager of Carver Library. He plans to share his collection with the public through a partnership with Carver as well as with the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum.
Grant interviewed members of Prudence Curry's family over Zoom and has collected photographs, artifacts, and memories of her life. One of his interviewees, Nettie Hinton, remembers Ms. Curry as her childhood librarian, with whom she built a lasting relationship.
"The legacy she left continues to this day. A nephew, Juan Montier III, who today makes his living as a restauranteur, recalled a particularly difficult time during his boyhood when Prudence Curry stepped in...The pair would spend hours together in the kitchen with Curry teaching him the art of pastry-making...Many recipes were shared, but the one that Montier was willing to divulge was his Aunt Prudence's Potato Rolls, a family favorite, which he serves today at Chez Montier in Decatur, Georgia."
- D.L. Grant
“There are a number of reasons why I am the person who I am today. But Prudence Curry and the Carver [Library] is one of those reasons. And so I want the Carver to continue to be that light at the end of the tunnel."
- Nettie Hinton, from her interview with D.L. Grant