Our state

tar heel history . 4 by Billy Arthur The Little Brick Schoolhouse During the days of Jim Crow. Charlotte Hawkins Brown founded the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia. Despite a shortage of resources and funds, Brown created a distinguished school for black children that thrived for more than 70 years. A black teenager sat reading а lxx>k of poelrv by the Lilin scholai Virgil while bab\ -sitting to raise nmne\ to pax lot ltd ( -am bridge, Massat luisetts. high-sc h« » d graduation dress. So astonished and impressed was tin- nearin' white president ol YVelleslex ( 'л rllege that she spoke to tins voting tears ol age. Brown became the insti¬ tute's lirst ptesident. \ pioneet also in race relations, she brought the s« hool 18 Our State August 1998 from an elemental v-based airiiculnm to a high-sc 1ии»| one and linalh to college preparatory. In 1987 its remaining buildings and grounds were opened as a State I I is torn Site honoring Brown and distinguishing a black woman lot the liist time in North Caiolina. A child prodigy The granddaughter of for¬ mer slaws, Charlotte was bom June 1 1. 1883. in a foui-c oluinned house, one ol the lines! black homes in Vance County. It had ruffled cur¬ tains. repro¬ ductions of great at t- woiks. and. as Diane Wilcox Jarrell tells in One Woman's Dream, “a hand-pump organ iioIxkIv could play (but) mom thought it was elegani.“ Her mother. Carolina Frances I lawkins. had attended the ele¬ mentary department of Shaw I'nivctsiiv and wanted her children to lx* well edu¬ cated and have a belter than segregated life. So. when Charlotte was age six. the family moved to ( 'aiuhridge: < lharlotte was a quick learn¬ er and exhibited talents in art. drama, and organizing, lor instance, a kinder¬ garten department. Two of her class¬ mates were daughters ol I lent у Wadsworth Longfellow. Alter graduating from normal school, she was ollered and accepted an American Missionary Soc iety teaching job in a small mission school at Sedalia. Jumping off a slow-moving train at Md-eansvillc (it didn't stop; her luggage was thrown oil), she walked four miles to Bethany Congregational Church, which doubled as a school. Its loft functioned as her living quat lets. There, site taught black children and slowly made friends with Ixith black and white adults, although it wasn't easy. She was Mack, she was a woman, and she was from the North. She also taught subjects her race was unfamiliar with, and whites feared the teachings would make blacks mote dissatisfied with their way of life. Yet. she gradually gained the confidence of most of the community. School life In early 1902. the missionai у society decided to close the school. Knowing that even remaining white schools were inferior and that high scluxiLs for blacks were nonexistent. Charlotte believed it was Cod's will she stay and provide a school lor blacks. But it would take monev She hoped Alice Freeman Palmer could help. Palmer provided names of |x>ssil>le benefactors, and C Charlotte s|x*nt the summer traveling in Massachusetts tiring to raise funds. Back in Sedalia 15 acres of land and two old buildings were donated, money trickled in from contacts she'd made. woman. I lei name was Chariot t« I lawkins Brown. Пил- talked a while, and Bi ow n. who aspired to teach school, lx-camc ; protege of Dr. Alice Freeman Palme who paid her tuition through Salem Normal School because "I was always inter¬ ested in bl ight young people." They met often there¬ after and talked alxntt bx>ks. dreams, and helping other |x-ople. Such was the Ix-gimiiiig ol Palmer Memorial Institute founded hv ( iharlolte I lawkins Brown in 1902 at Sedalia, 10 miles eras! of Givenslxiro on what CJiarloltc II a whins Brown wiis then a dil l road. At 19