Viola Denisa Rowe Gross (August 25, 1921 – February 20, 2012) from Danville, Kentucky, was a teacher, businesswoman, clubwoman and author.
[3] Living in Tuskegee raised her awareness about the violent effects of segregation, and she learned of the uprisings in the Deep South to promote equal rights such as boycotts of buses, department stores, and groceries, which resulted in financial problems for whites.
The book includes information such as careers, marriages, owned property, and ledgers dating back over 200 years.
[5] Since the height of the Jim Crow era, white women traced their lineage to prove their standing in prestigious organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution.
[7] Viola Rowe Gross stated that the purpose of her book was to provide information about her family's history to future generations.
The documents supported the historical significance to two extremely rare portraits of a free African American couple from Kentucky, Dennis and Diademia Doram, painted by Patrick Henry Davenport before the Civil War.
One of the documents donated to the KHS were freedom papers dated 1836 that confirmed the emancipation in 1814 of Diademia, her siblings and her mother, Cloe.
Dennis Doram was a respected landowner and businessman in Danville, with a rope factory and a hemp business as well as running the Caldwell School for Women.
Toward the end of her life, she lived in Frankfort near her son Rodney T. Gross III and enjoyed her three grandchildren, a great-grandson, and a great many others in her extended family.