On this day, the Alice Freeman Palmer Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina, founded by educator and activist Charlotte Hawkins Brown, was officially renamed and incorporated as the Palmer Memorial Institute. Named in honor of Brown’s mentor, Alice Freeman Palmer, the school became a prestigious African American preparatory school for students across the U.S.
Brown, one of the first Black women to establish and lead such an institution, emphasized academic excellence, character development, and cultural refinement, challenging the limited educational options available to Black youth in the Jim Crow South. The school operated for over 60 years and became a symbol of Black educational achievement.
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