The Hallie Q. Brown Community House had its beginnings in 1908 when African American members of the Odd Fellows and Masons fraternal lodges purchased six lots on Aurora Street between Kent and Mackubin located within St. Paul's largely African American Rondo neighborhood. In 1914 the Union Hall Association was organized and it constructed a neighborhood center on one of the lots. The St. Paul Urban League and the YWCA contributed funds and other support during 1923-1929. The YWCA was forced to withdraw its funding in 1929 and a new interracial committee was formed to carry on the work. I. Myrtle Carden of Pittsburgh was hired as the director, a position she held until 1949, and the center was named for Civil Rights and women's suffrage activist Hallie Q. Brown (ca. 1845-1949). During Carden's tenure, Hallie Q. Brown became the second largest neighborhood center in St. Paul. Subsequent directors were Alice Sims Onque (1949-1965), Henry R. Thomas (1965-1978), Fred B. Williams (1978- ), and Richard M. Mangram. During the 1970s the organization's name was changed to the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center.
The organization began as a largely cultural center to serve the unmet needs of the Black community in the city, as well as to create better relationships with the white community. Over the years the center grew to provide educational, social, cultural, and human services activities for community residents of all ages. In the latter 1970s it constructed a new, larger facility-the Martin Luther King Center-on Kent Street to accommodate its wide-ranging programs.
From the guide to the Community house records., 1921-1996 (bulk 1940-1967)., (Minnesota Historical Society)
