January 11

Charlotte Hawkins Brown

The founder of the Palmer Memorial Institute near Greensboro, North Carolina, Charlotte Hawkins Brown died on January 11, 1961 in Greensboro at age 77.  Brown was born on June 11, 1883 in Henderson, North Carolina, but grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  After being educated at the State Normal School at Salem, Massachusetts, Palmer went to work at the Bethany Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina.

Brown would found her own educational institution after the closing of Bethany Institute. Brown's Palmer Memorial Institute would succeed as a nationally recognized preparatory boarding school for African American youth.