Brown, Charlotte Hawkins (c. 1883–1961)

African-American educator. Name variations: Charlotte Hawkins, Charlotte Eugenia Hawkins, or Lottie Hawkins; Charlotte Eugenia Hawkins Brown. Born Lottie Hawkins, June 11, c. 1883, in Henderson, North Carolina; died Jan 11, 1961, in Greensboro, North Carolina; dau. of Edmund H. Hight and Caroline (Carrie) Frances Hawkins; m. Edward S. Brown (teacher), 1911 (div. 1916); children: attended State Normal School at Salem (MA).

School founder who encouraged interracial cooperation, promoting exchange programs for students, worked with local community and advocated voting and home-ownership for blacks; taught at American Missionary Association's Bethany Institute at McLeansville (later Sedalia), NC (1901); after AMA shut it down, took over school and renamed it Palmer Memorial Institute (PMI, 1902), building its reputation over next few decades; served as president of NC State Federation of Negro Women's Clubs (1915–36) and of NC Teachers Association (1935–37); wrote Mammy: An Appeal to the Heart of the South (1919) and The Correct Thing to Do, to Say, and to Wear (1941); was the 1st black woman to gain membership in Twentieth Century Club of Boston (1928) and to serve on NC Council of Defense (1940); addressed Congrès International des Femmes in Paris (1945); retired from PMI as president (1952) and as vice president of board and director of finances (1955); co-founded National Council of Negro Women.

See also Constance Marteena, The Lengthening Shadow of a Woman (1977).