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Charlotte H. Brown, Educator born

Charlotte H. Brown

Charlotte H. Brown was born on this date in 1883. She was a Black civic leader and educator.

Charlotte Eugenia Hawkins was born in Henderson, North Carolina, but the family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1888.  There, they operated a boarding house and a laundry for Harvard students.  Around the time she graduated from Cambridge English High School, Charlotte attracted the interest and support of Alice Freeman Palmer.  In 1902, Hawkins founded the Alice Freeman Palmer Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina, in honor of her mentor.  Palmer Institute began as a vocational school, but its curriculum evolved until it was a strictly academic institution. It was considered one of the finest preparatory schools for Blacks in the U.S.

In addition to running the Palmer Institute, Brown fought tirelessly for African American civil rights, lecturing in opposition to lynching and favoring interracial cooperation. She helped to found the National Council of Negro Women, the North Carolina State Federation of Negro Women's Clubs, and the North Carolina Teachers Association. She was also on the national board of the YWCA.

Brown served as the president of the Palmer Institute for 50 years before retiring in 1952.  Even in retirement, however, she continued to act as the financial director of the school and was deeply involved on its board of directors until she died in 1961.  In 1983, the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Historical Foundation was incorporated. They established North Carolina's first historic site honoring either an African American or a woman on the Palmer Institutes campus.

Charlotte H. Brown, who founded the Palmer Institute, argued against lynchings and favored interracial cooperation, died on January 11, 1961.

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