Brown, Hallie Quinn, 1849-1949

Hallie Quinn Brown; March 10, 1849, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.; Died, September 16, 1949 (aged 100), Wilberforce, Ohio, U.S.; Originally of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she moved with her parents while quite young to a farm near Chatham, Canada. Brown was born the to two former slaves. Her father was an incredibly bright man, known as "Mr. Brown, the walking encyclopedia." Her mother was also well educated, a counselor to the students of Wilberforce school. Brown's family to Canada in 1864 and then to Ohio in 1870. In 1868, she began a course of study in Wilberforce University, Ohio, from which she graduated in 1873 with the degree of Bachelor of Science; She started her career by teaching at a country school in South Carolina and at the same time, a class of older people. After this, she went to Mississippi, where she again had charge of a school. She became employed as a teacher at Yazoo City, Mississippi, before securing a position as teacher in Dayton, Ohio. Resigning due to ill health, she then traveled in the interest of Wiberforce University on a lecture tour, and was particularly welcomed at Hampton Normal School (now Hampton University) in Virginia. Though elected as instructor in elocution and literature at Wilberforce University, she declined the offer in order to accept a position at Tuskegee Institute. In 1886, she graduated from Chautauqua, and in 1887 received the degree of Master of Science from her alma mater, Wilberforce, being the first woman to do so

Hallie Quinn Brown; BIRTH 10 Mar 1850, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA; DEATH 16 Sep 1949 (aged 99), Wilberforce, Greene County, Ohio, USA; BURIAL Massies Creek Cemetery, Cedarville, Greene County, Ohio, USA; MEMORIAL ID 21210; Educator. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she was an African American educator and elocutionist who pioneered in the movement for Black women's clubs. Educated at Wilberforce University Ohio, she taught on plantations and in the public schools of Mississippi and South Carolina. In the 1870s, she traveled as an elocutionist and lecturer, speaking in Europe as well as the United States on topics of the life of Blacks in America. She helped form the first British Chautauqua, England and lectured on behalf of the British Women's Temperance Association. In the US, she founded the earliest women's clubs for Blacks to include the Ohio State Federation of Colored Women's Club, Colored Women's League of Washington, D.C. and National Association of Colored Women.