Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1936-11-21
OTHERS VIEWS
PALMER INSTITUTE
TO the Editor:

your columns to write of some unu-
sual or interesting experience that
might be of general interest. This
week, on Monday, enroute to Green's
boro, 1 stopped off at Sedalia, some
ten miles of Gate City, to visit Pal
mer Memorial Institute, a Junior
College for Negro boys and girls,
founded more than thirty years ago
Hawkins Brown, who still presides
over the Institution. 1t has been said
that the world makes a beaten track
to the door of any one who succeeds
in doing any one thing in very
superior way. This splendid insti-
tuition, long since recognized as a uni
que adventure in education, now has
nearly 300 students varying from pri-
mary, through junior college work.
DR.. Brown told me with justifiable
pride that Guilford county was now
building an elementary school adj
joining her property, honoring her in
its name. This will take from Pal
mer Memorial Institute all elemen-
tary grades making it possible to de-
velop the college work more ade-
quately DR. Browns dream is to, in
time, develop this memorial school
into a college for the training of Ne
gro youth as teachers and as social
workers. The administration build
ing is named in honor of Alice Free
man Palmer, at the time of her death
president of Wellesyley College, who
befriended this young Negro woman
and made possible her education in
q aSco0hIcoff-
later the fulfillment of her dream to
go back South to her native State of
North Carolina and establish a school
for Negroes. One of the buildings
bears the name of Charles w. Elliott.
president of Harvard College, who
also helped Charlotte Hawkins Brown
realize her youthful ambition It was
interesting to me to meet this woman
and find that she was a native of
Henderson and Vance County. She
named with pride her grand mother.
Rebecca Hawkins who as a practical
nurse, served IL the best homes of
Henderson in the earlier days.
Perhaps the most outstanding fea-
ture of this school, to the public, is
the group of singers, styled the "Se-
dalia Singers" who have won fame
and honor in their line, ranking with
the Fisk Jubilee Singers, of Nashville
Tennessee.
l questioned DR.. Brown about this
group and was told that for twenty
years the Sedalia Singers have been
giving their concerts annually for the
white people of Greensboro, N. C..
They have appeared at the Senior
High School building, the Junior
High School, the National and Caro-
lima theatres, and the Auditorium of
Woman's College. They have sung
in the million dollar Presbyterian
church, Dr. Charles T. Myers, pastor,
and DR.. Brown has been speaker from
his pulpit. These singers have per-
formed at Symphony Hall, Boston,
one of the largest concert halls in
New England, on two or three occa-
sions to audiences of two or three
thousand people of the white group.
They have also appeared in concert
in New York, recently, DR.. Brown is
planning to take the quartette on a
concert tour to London and Europe
very soon. President and Mrs. Roose-
welt invited them to the White House
where they gave concert and where
DR.. Brown spoke. Mrs. James
Roosevelt, mother of the President.
has been contributing to this institu-
ton for twenty-five years. President
and Mrs. Roosevelt are on the en-
dowment committee.
A southern attorney, Col. Frank F..
Hobgood, native of Oxord, NJ c., is
Chairman the Board of Trustees
and has been one of the schools adj
visors for thirty years. DR.. Charles
d. McIver was one of it's first south
ern friends and givers, Mrs. McIver
has continued to serve on the Board
OF Directors these many years and
speaks in terms of DR. Brown as a
mother would speak of a Child.
Audiences all over North Carolina.
churches and schools are using this
group of singers to bring about bet
ter racial good will
Recently, for the first time in the
history of Seaboard N. c., Prof. and
Mrs. Thomas Everett presented these
singers to an audience of 600 people.
The University of North Carolina pre-
sents the ;5,edalia Singers annually.
DR.. Brown is considered one of the
most forccful speakers on the Ameri-
can platform and southern people
have presented her in inter-racial and
convention groups.
DR.. Brown expressed her regret
that conflict of dates made it i'm
possible for her group to appear in
concert in Henderson as scheduled
and her hope that at some future
time she may have the pleasure and
honor of bringing her famous group
to her native town and county.
My visit to Palmer Memorial In
st1tute was fully of interest.
MRS. A. B. DEANS.
y. GendersOn, Nov 10 1896