[3] She developed a "methodology for the study of African American Anthropology" that acknowledged the diversity among and within black families, communities and cultures.
Vera Mae Green was born on September 6, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois,[4] where she lived in poor urban areas and attended the city's public schools.
"Drake encouraged Green to seek graduate study in the social sciences, but her lack of finances eliminated that possibility.
"[4] Prior to moving to New York City for graduate studies, she held several positions at various social welfare agencies in Chicago.
Under the direction of anthropologists Charles Wagley and Eleanor Padilla, Green studied the "relationship among social stress, health, and disease"[3] in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City.
While at Columbia University, she also studied under Native American anthropologist Gene Weltfish, who was investigated during the McCarthy era.
[1] Prior to earning her master's in anthropology, Green held various social services positions in her hometown, Chicago.
[6][3] Green's personal experience, professional work on poverty and field work in East Harlem with Wagley and Padilla made her an ideal researcher for anthropologist Oscar Lewis's study of a poor urban area in Puerto Rico and in New York.
[5][9][6] Her "field notes from that project became Lewis' [book]",[6] La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty—San Juan and New York.
[9][3][5][8] Her dissertation, Aspects of Interethnic Integration in Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, was done under the direction of anthropologist Edward H. Spicer, who also provided a way for Green to enter the university's doctorate program.
Drake explained that her work marked a turning point for black students who wished to do research on non-black groups.
There were very few West Indian anthropologists of color either, graduate students from the islands preferred fields like economics, political science, history, and the classics.
Implicit in this new usage is the accompanying idea that all persons of African descent were unaware of their history and sought escape from any form of 'Negro' connection.
In her article, Green asserted that while the data presented in the studies could have "potentially increase[d] the understanding of [U.S.] Black families in academic and administrative circles",[12] it did not go far enough.
In 1980, International Human Rights: Contemporary Issues, a book Green co-edited with Jack L. Nelson, was released.
[15] As an educator, her "work on poverty, immigration, and poor and disenfranchised people of color, particularly those of African descent, was a mainstay in the classroom".
A member of the 57th Street Meeting of Friends, Green was an unprogrammed Quaker who lent her expertise to support the mission of her faith.
She also found that some of the religion's ideology like "lack of ceremony" and "understanding of humanity" appealed to black people while others like "patience" and "passivity" did not.
[5] Green also contributed to the anthology Black Fire: African American Quaker on Spirituality and Human Rights.
[6] In 1996, Bolles dedicated her book, Sister Jamaica: A Study of Women, Work and Households in Kingston, to the memory of Vera Mae Green.