Charlotte Hawkins Brown

Charlotte Hawkins Brown was an American educator and civil rights activist who built one of the few college preparatory schools open to Black students in the segregated South. Born in 1883, she founded the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina in 1902, growing it from a small day school into a nationally known boarding school offering academic and vocational training. She led the school until her retirement in 1952, training generations of students who themselves became educators. Brown authored The Correct Thing To Do, To Say, To Wear in 1941, setting out the social and educational philosophy she taught at Palmer. She was the first African American woman appointed to the national board of the YWCA and was active in the Commission on Interracial Cooperation and the National Negro Business League. Her former campus is preserved today as the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum.