Changemaker 15: Charlotte Hawkins Brown
Today's changemaker is Charlotte Hawkins Brown. Born in Henderson, North Carolina, in 1883, she was an author and educator. In 1888, her family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to pursue a better life. While she was a student, Brown was very dedicated and her excellence impressed Alice Freeman Palmer, a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education who paid for her schooling expenses.
After a year of college at the age of nineteen, she returned to North Carolina, where she started teaching in a rural school for African-American students. When the American Missionary Association decided to close this school, Brown was brave enough to establish her own school. Having the support of local African Americans and having raised some money, she built a campus, and she made her dream of a boarding school for only African Americans come true. The school was named the “Palmer Memorial Institution” and it was a place where African Americans had the same opportunities in terms of acquiring knowledge and access to excellent teaching, while learning in place of equality and safety.
Brown's efforts drew national recognition, while she gave lectures at institutions around the country, as well as obtaining multiple honorary degrees. 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.
Apart from her work as an educator, she also tried to improve opportunities for African Americans, including the Southern Commission for Interracial Cooperation and the Negro Business League. She frequently spoke out against discrimination against African Americans while she fought for women's rights, particularly the right to vote.
The campus buildings of the Palmer Memorial Institute are now the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum, which belongs to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
You can read more about Brown here and here.
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