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I was born in Columbus, Georgia some seventy years ago. I have lovely memories of a Tudor type of house,which my fatherbuilt, situated in a section of the city called Rose Hill. It was rightly named for it was on a hill. Still fresh in my memory are the beautiful flower gardens that we had. There were two unusual circular flower beds, now deeply preserved in my subconscious, which find expression in my paintings.

My childhood in Columbus, where I attended the graded schools, was very pleasant. My mother and aunts were teachers and were graduates of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. I can remember their participation in cultural clubs, studying Latin, history, and the Classics. A white professor from Atlanta came to our home once or twice a month to instruct them. A friend of theirs ^[[went]] [[strikethrough]] came [[/strikethrough]] to Washington and took lessons in painting on velvet. Upon her return to Columbus, she opened a class in that type of painting. I enjoyed the club's meeting at my house, for their tubes of [[strikethrough]] colored [[/strikethrough]] oil paints ^[[and their beautiful colors]] fascinated me. I was given music lessons and my mother played the violin.

^[[margin]] Alma's memories of her [[/margin]] 

My three sisters and I spent the summers on our grandfather's plantation, about 10 miles ^[[across the]] Chattahoochee (check spelling) River in Alabama. He was an excellent veterinarian and all his grandchildren loved him. 

When I finished grade school in Columbus, there was nowhere that I could continue [[strikethrough]] d [[/strikethrough]] my education, so my parents decided to move the family to Washington. At least Washington's libraries were open to Negroes, whereas Columbus excluded Negroes from [[strikethrough]] them [[/strikethrough]] ^[[its library.]]

Upon graduation from Armstrong High School in Washington, I enrolled in the Miner Teachers Normal School. After completing my studies there, I was a kindergarten teacher in Wilmington, Delaware [[strikethrough]] for years [[/strikethrough]] Serving in this capacity for 6 years, I returned to Washington and entered Howard University. I was in the first class to be graduated from the Art Department of Howard University. After my graduation from Howard, I continued my art education at Columbia