Mary Elizabeth Vroman was born in Buffalo, New York, grew up in the West Indies, and graduated from Alabama State Teachers College. Following in the footsteps of three generations of women on her mother's side of the family who became educators, she taught for twenty years in the public schools of Alabama, Chicago, and New York. She was married to Oliver M. Harper, a dentist, and her untimely death occurred at the age of forty-two because of complications following surgery.

Vroman's first published story, "See How They Run", depicted her experiences as a new teacher in a third-grade Alabama classroom. She adapted the story to a motion picture entitled Bright Road and became the first black woman member of the Screen Writers Guild.

"See How They Run", published when Vroman was twenty-seven, describes the challenges faced by an idealistic young black teacher in the rural South. The story...