State

She Built a School on Labor, Dignity Л notable North Carolinian found that a purposeful smile and “if you please" are implements for crossing the color line. By EUGENE MILLER In February. 1950, a small 67-ycar- old woman sal watching 30 years of work, sweat, and prayer go up in sntokc. The woman was Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown, founder and presi¬ dent of Palmer Memorial Institute, and the fire she watched destroyed the school’s $150,000 Galen Stone Hall, a girls’ dormitory. But even as the women faculty members brushed tears from their eyes and students slumped down on hosc- drcnchcd mattresses to cry. Dr. Brown managed to smile. "So long as 1 have faith in God, He will send friends to help us," she soft¬ ly said. And then thanking God that no one was injured in the blaze, she wired the parents of her students: "Galen Stone Hall has burned down, but the children are safe." Next, the graying Negro woman turned to the long, hard task of find¬ ing money to build a new dormitory. Today, there is a spanking new Gal¬ en Stone Hall, standing in the center of Palmer's 350-acre campus, rebuilt brick by brick, and paid for by the dimes and dollars of Negro and white men and women from the North and South. And to the dark-skinned, great¬ hearted Negro woman, who still has a bounce to her step and a youthful glow in her eyes, this is just a reaffir¬ mation of her faith in God and people — a faith that has made her one of the country's outstanding women educa¬ tors, and has helped cam her school the reputation as "one of the most significant experiments in Negro edu¬ cation in the country." This year, Dr. Brown rounds out 50 years of service devoted to the educa¬ tion and cultural enrichment of her people. And in that half-century. Palmer has grown from a handful of students, studying in a makeshift schoolhousc. into one of the outstand¬ ing Negro private schools in the world, with a student body of more than 200 and plant facilities valued at over $500,000. Today, Palmer draws its enrollment from all parts of the United States and front foreign countries as well. And among its educational aims, are two outstanding ones: "To teach the dig¬ nity of labor, and to emphasize polite¬ ness,” values that often seem to be ignored in the throbbing tempo of to¬ day. Palmer students walk through hallways, always alert to the signs overhead which say: "Move Quietly, Speak Softly," and the words, "Thank you," and “If you please" are school bywords. The students at Palmer, range in Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown, founder and president of Palmer Memorial Institute at Sedalia. THE STATE, Vol. XIX; No. 22. Entered a. eecond-claw matter, Jane 1, 1933, at the Poetofflce at Raleigh. North Carolina, under the act оГ March 3, 1839. PubUthed by Sharpe Publlahlng Co., Inc., Lawyers Bide., Raleigh, N. C.