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“Breaking Ground” a bronze sculpture honoring the 220 Black workers who helped start the Norfolk Botanical Garden. (Kristen Zeis/For The Washington Post)

A once-segregated botanical garden honors the Black workers who built it

 What to know

Helen Ferguson Williams discovered her mother, Mary Elizabeth Ferguson, was among the 220 Black workers who built the Norfolk Botanical Garden in the 1930s. The garden now honors these workers with a memorial and annual WPA Heritage Day, with an glass memorial being unveiled. Despite their contributions, the workers were initially barred from visiting due to segregation laws.

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