Born: June 11, 1883, Henderson, NC

Education: Salem Teachers’ College, 1900–01; Wellesley College, B.A., 1928

Died: January 11, 1961, Greensboro, NC

Griffin Davis, the photographer for Ebony magazine's story on Palmer Memorial Institute in 1947, called it “the Groton and Exeter of Negro America.”

Palmer exemplified Brown's hope. Established in 1902 for industrial training, it became an elite high school using a classical curriculum. During her presidency, from 1902 to 1952, she raised nearly $1.5 million and transformed the lives of more than 1,000 students, usually from middle-class backgrounds. More than 90 percent of them earned diplomas and enrolled in four-year colleges; 64 percent attended graduate schools. Brown urged students to be self-disciplined and excel academically. A role model through her activism in black women's associations and civil rights struggles – state, regional, and national – she joined the fight against lynching and Jim Crow. A popular speaker, she advocated black moral character, dignity, and self-help; interracial cooperation; and educational equality. She also spoke of her life's calling. “I must sing my song. There may be other songs more beautiful than mine,” she declared, “but I must sing the song God gave me to sing, and I must sing it until death” (www.nchistoricsites.org/chb/main.htm). Palmer is preserved as the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Memorial State Historic Site (1987). Brown is honored in the North Carolina Association of Educators Hall of Fame (2006).