Hallie Quinn Brown was a noted educator, lecturer, and elocutionist. She also was an author and social and political activist.
Besides the five year lecture tour mentioned in my earlier post Brown made two other trips to Europe. Frederick Douglass sent a letter with Brown to introduce her to his “British friends”. She was a very successful fundraiser. In addition to other support she obtained a one time gift of $15,000 from Julia Emery, a British philanthropist. This money was used to build Emery Hall at Wilberforce University. The building still stands today and is scheduled for restoration and renovation.
Brown was an organizer and crusader for several civil rights movements. She was active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. When she saw a need for a national organization to support black women in America she helped establish the Colored Woman’s League of Washington, D.C. in 1894. This later became the National Association of Colored Women for which she served as president from 1920 to 1924. During her presidency the organization worked to preserve the Frederick Douglas Home in Washington, D.C. and set up a scholarship fund for women. She was also president of the Ohio Federation of Colored Women.
Her interest in clubs for women carried over to Europe. She was a member of the British Women’s Temperance Association, was given membership to the Royal Geographical Society of Scotland, and was elected a member of the International Council of Women. She helped establish, in 1895, the first British Chautauqua in North Wales.
In addition to being active in clubs Brown was very involved at Wilberforce University. She was a professor of elocution there and on the board of trustees. A member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Brown taught Sunday School classes on the Wilberforce campus.
Brown was a passionate Republican and envisioned elocution as a way to participate in politics. She spoke at the 1920 Republican convention in support of Warren Harding for the United States presidency. Harding ran a “front porch campaign’ from his Victorian house in Marion, Ohio. People came from all over to hear him. Brown was the first woman to speak from his famous front porch. In 1932 she actively campaigned for Herbert Hoover’s presidential campaign.
Brown authored eight books among them were: Bits and Odds: A choice Selection of Recitations, First Lessons in Public Speaking, Tales My Father Told, and Other Stories, and Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction.
She lived to be almost 100 years old but died on September 16, 1949 and is buried in the family plot in Massie’s Creek Cemetery.
The Hallie Q. Brown Memorial Library at Central State University was named in her honor.
LaVerne C. Kenon Sci, Historic Site Manager of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar House State Memorial, frequently does a re-enactment of Hallie Q. Brown. “I decided to interpret her because she was an ordinary person who achieved extraordinary heights during her lifetime of 99 years, six months, and six days,” said Sci. “She became an advocate for the disenfranchised in our society.”
WHAT: Paul Lawrence Dunbar House State Memorial
WHERE: 219 North P.L. Dunbar St., Dayton, OH
WHEN: weekly Wed.-Sun.
TIME: Wed.-Sat. 9am-5pm, Sun. noon-5pm
COST: adults $6, Seniors $5, students $3, children 5 and under free
Showing posts with label Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Show all posts
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Friday, July 31, 2009
Hallie Quinn Brown
Hallie Quinn Brown
By Rosalie Yoakam
Hallie Q. Brown, a child of former slaves, became a professor of elocution and a world renowned lecturer who gave voice to scores of disenfranchised people.
Born on March 10, 1850 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Brown was the fifth of six children of Thomas and Frances Brown. Thomas had purchased his freedom from his Scottish mother and Frances was freed by her maternal grandfather.
During Hallie’s childhood Thomas worked as a steward and express agent for riverboats. The family owned much real estate and was active in social causes. Their house was a station on the Underground Railroad and they provided space for visiting ministers of the African Methodist Episcopal church. These early experiences instilled in Hallie a respect for education and human rights.
Shortly before the Civil War ended the Brown family moved to a farm near Chatham, Ontario, Canada. There, teenaged Hallie practiced giving speeches by standing on a tree stump and addressing the farm animals.
When Hallie was twenty, the Brown family moved to Wilberforce, Ohio. There she and her brother attended Wilberforce University. She received a Bachelors degree from the university in 1873.
Upon graduation she taught, during the Reconstruction era, in plantation schools in Mississippi and South Carolina. She then worked as dean of Allen University in Columbia before returning to Dayton where she taught public school from 1887-1891. At this time she also taught night school for adult migrants.
After her Dayton career, Brown was a principal at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama for a year where she worked with Booker T. Washington. Next, she was offered the post of professor of elocution at Wilberforce University. But, before she assumed the position, she decided to travel and lecture.
Chautauqua schools were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The schools combined education with entertainment using lectures, concerts, and plays and were often given outdoors or in tents. Brown had attended a Chautauqua Lecture School.
Following this training Brown began to travel widely as a lecturer and elocutionist. She traveled to every state in the United States except two; Vermont and Maine. In 1894 she went to Europe and stayed for five years performing in numerous European countries. In England she appeared before Queen Victoria on two occasions.
Her program was diverse consisting of 90 memorized pieces and varied in content from Shakespeare to Mark Twain. She was especially skillful in presenting the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church Review said of her: “Miss Brown possesses a voice of wonderful magnetism and great compass. At times, she thrills by its intensity; at times, it is mellow and soothing. She seems to have perfect control of the muscles of her throat, and can vary her voice as successfully as a mocking-bird.”
My next column will recount the political and social activism of this dynamic woman.
By Rosalie Yoakam
Hallie Q. Brown, a child of former slaves, became a professor of elocution and a world renowned lecturer who gave voice to scores of disenfranchised people.
Born on March 10, 1850 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Brown was the fifth of six children of Thomas and Frances Brown. Thomas had purchased his freedom from his Scottish mother and Frances was freed by her maternal grandfather.
During Hallie’s childhood Thomas worked as a steward and express agent for riverboats. The family owned much real estate and was active in social causes. Their house was a station on the Underground Railroad and they provided space for visiting ministers of the African Methodist Episcopal church. These early experiences instilled in Hallie a respect for education and human rights.
Shortly before the Civil War ended the Brown family moved to a farm near Chatham, Ontario, Canada. There, teenaged Hallie practiced giving speeches by standing on a tree stump and addressing the farm animals.
When Hallie was twenty, the Brown family moved to Wilberforce, Ohio. There she and her brother attended Wilberforce University. She received a Bachelors degree from the university in 1873.
Upon graduation she taught, during the Reconstruction era, in plantation schools in Mississippi and South Carolina. She then worked as dean of Allen University in Columbia before returning to Dayton where she taught public school from 1887-1891. At this time she also taught night school for adult migrants.
After her Dayton career, Brown was a principal at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama for a year where she worked with Booker T. Washington. Next, she was offered the post of professor of elocution at Wilberforce University. But, before she assumed the position, she decided to travel and lecture.
Chautauqua schools were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The schools combined education with entertainment using lectures, concerts, and plays and were often given outdoors or in tents. Brown had attended a Chautauqua Lecture School.
Following this training Brown began to travel widely as a lecturer and elocutionist. She traveled to every state in the United States except two; Vermont and Maine. In 1894 she went to Europe and stayed for five years performing in numerous European countries. In England she appeared before Queen Victoria on two occasions.
Her program was diverse consisting of 90 memorized pieces and varied in content from Shakespeare to Mark Twain. She was especially skillful in presenting the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church Review said of her: “Miss Brown possesses a voice of wonderful magnetism and great compass. At times, she thrills by its intensity; at times, it is mellow and soothing. She seems to have perfect control of the muscles of her throat, and can vary her voice as successfully as a mocking-bird.”
My next column will recount the political and social activism of this dynamic woman.
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