Charlotte Hawkins Brown

                                                 Charlotte Hawkins Brown

Charlotte Hawkins was born in 1883 to Caroline Frances Hawkings and Edmund H. Hight, a brick mason, in Henderson, North Carolina. Charlotte never knew her father, therefore, she used her mother’s maiden name.  When Charlotte was about 7 years old, her mother took her to Massachusetts, where living conditions were better for blacks.  Charlotte blossomed in her new environment, showing enough early self-confidence and ability to be chosen speaker at her grammar school graduation ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  She would later recall that these years were unscarred by racial prejudice.  In fact, her high school principal remained a lifetime friend and supporter.

It was in 1901, when she accepted a position with the American Missionaries Association (AMA), to teach in a one room school house in rural Guilford County, North Carolina near Greensboro. While spending her formative years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she became well acquainted with a classical education, which included the study of literature and the arts.

In 1902, Brown established the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia,North Carolina. [Alice Freeman Palmer, first woman (white) to become president of a university in the United States].She named the school for Alice Freeman Palmer, , who was a friend and benefactor.

It first operated out of an old blacksmith shop, but eventually grew to house hundreds of students in more than a dozen buildings. Palmer grew to become known as an elite black preparatory school, hosting students from all over the country and world. During her tenure at Palmer, Brown actively toured, speaking on behalf of women’s suffrage and racial equality. She devoted her life to the improvement of the African American community’s social standing and was active in the National Council of Negro Women, an organization founded by celebrated educator Mary McLeod Bethune in 1935. As president of the North Carolina State Federation of Negro Women’s Clubs, Brown also directed African American women’s formal civic experiences for more than 20 years.

Married briefly to Edward Brown, who died, Charlotte "will inherit" nephews from her late husband, poor orphans including Maria Brown, future Mrs. Nat King Cole. Maria will be raised in the Palmer Memorial Institute, in the strictest discipline and we imagine the satisfaction of Aunt Charlotte when freshly graduated, Maria announced that she was going to marry a certain Spurgeon Ellington.

Things are not exactly going to happen as Charlotte would have liked. Soon, Maria will divorce but keep her married name, which she finds very practical for her new life choice: the song. Is it because they have the same name, she is in any case engaged as a singer of the orchestra of Duke Ellington, through which she will meet the charming Nat Cole,

More than 3000 guests, a religious service led by Hazell Scott and Adam Clayton Powell, thousands of curious around the church and later, a feast, unfolding, not at the Waldorf Astoria who refused to host a black wedding, but at the Belmont Plaza where Sarah Vaughan will be singing all night long.  Everyone will agree that Nat and Maria are the most charming couple in the world.

In addition to her work at the Palmer Institute, Brown was active in national efforts to improve opportunities for African Americans, including the Southern Commission for Interracial Cooperation and the Negro Business League. She was the first African American woman named to the national board of the YWCA. She was an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

              Treasures: Charlotte Hawkins Brown


             Palmer Memorial Institute Trailer


    Information sources:
    communitiesconnections.com/2014/09/08/charlotte-hawkins-brown-museum-by-tarriel-dubose-by-tarriel-dubose/
    radcliffe.harvard.edu/news/schlesinger-newsletter/pforzheimer-fellow-digitizes-charlotte-hawkins-brown-papers
    video.unctv.org/video/1940204967/
    soyons-suave.blogspot.com/2013/08/les-tres-suaves-heures-de-lhistoire.html
    www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2013/03/29/noted-black-educator-charlotte-hawkins-brown
    Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    www.biography.com/people/charlotte-hawkins-brown-206525
    www.savway.net/charlotte-h.-brown.html