Brown, Charlotte Hawkins

June 11, 1883
January 10, 1961

One of the premier educators of her day, Charlotte Hawkins Brown was also a key figure in the network of southern African-American clubwomen who were active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Brown was born Lottie Hawkins in Henderson, North Carolina. When she was five her family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her mother and stepfather operated a laundry and boarded Harvard students. During this period the family retained close ties with its Carolina roots.

Hawkins studied hard and was active in church and youth groups in Cambridge. She also developed an interest in art and music that became lifelong. As a high school student, Hawkins met Alice Freeman Palmer, the second president of Wellesley College, who took an immediate interest in her. Palmer was so impressed with Hawkins that she financed her education at the State Normal School in Salem, Massachusetts, where Hawkins enrolled in 1900 to earn a teaching certificate. She left school in 1901 to take a position with the American Missionary Association at a small school in North Carolina. Although the school soon closed because of inadequate funding, Hawkins determined to dedicate herself to education in her home state.

By October 1902 Hawkins had secured a donation of land, a building, and funds to open the Alice Freeman Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina. In 1909 she married Edward Brown, a graduate of Harvard, who taught at the Palmer Institute briefly before the couple separated and divorced. Over the years, under Charlotte Hawkins Brown's leadership, Palmer developed into a highly respected institution for preparatory training. From its early focus on vocational education, the school moved to a strict academic curriculum. The campus, the student body, and the faculty grew steadily, and Palmer sent many of its graduates to institutions of higher learning. Brown's work as an educator received recognition within her home state and across the country.

Brown was a key figure among black clubwomen, serving as president of the North Carolina State Federation of Negro Women's Clubs. She was also active in interracial work as a member of the national board of the YWCA, and she also worked with other organizations. She campaigned against lynching and toured widely as a lecturer. She also assisted in the founding of other schools in North Carolina, including the Dobbs School for Girls and the Morrison Training School, and she helped to establish scholarship funds for the college education of African-American women.

In addition to her work as an educator and activist, Brown raised her brother's three children and three of her young cousins. She also published two works, Mammy: An Appeal to the Heart of the South (1919) and The Correct Thing to Do, to Say and to Wear (1941). Brown remained the president of the Palmer Memorial Institute until 1952 and died nine years later. Although the institute ceased operation in 1971, the state of North Carolina has kept the memory of Brown's contributions and achievements alive in a memorial to her and to her institution.

See also Education in the United States

Bibliography

Daniel, Sadie Iola. Women Builders. Washington, D.C.: Associated Publishers, 1931. Revised and enlarged by Charles H. Wesley and Thelma D. Perry, 1970.

Marteena, Constance Hill. The Lengthening Shadow of a Woman: A Biography of Charlotte Hawkins Brown. Hicksville, N.Y.: Exposition Press, 1977.

Silcox-Jarrett, Diane. Charlotte Hawkins Brown: One Woman's Dream. Winston-Salem, N.C.: Bandit Books, 1995.

Wadelington, Charles Weldon, and Richard F. Knapp. Charlotte Hawkins Brown and Palmer Memorial Institute: What One Young African American Woman Could Do. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

judith weisenfeld (1996)
Updated bibliography