Charlotte Hawkins Brown, born in 1883 in Vance County, North Carolina, the granddaughter of a slave, grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and while in college there training to be a teacher, accepted a position with the American Missionary Association to teach at Bethany Church in Sedalia. After the Bethany School closed in 1902, she opened Palmer Memorial Institute on this site and led the school for fifty years, setting high standards of conduct and achievement for students. Through her determination, vision, and tireless fundraising, Palmer grew into a nationally known secondary academy for African American youth. Over her career, Brown became a noted public speaker who traveled throughout the United States and abroad, and in 1945 spoke at the International Congress of Women in Paris. Her additional achievements included serving as founder and long-serving president of the N.C. Federation of Negro Women's Clubs, vice-president of the National Council of Negro Women, the first African American elected to the board of the National YWCA, and author of The Correct Thing to Do, to Say, to Wear. After years of declining health, she died on January 11, 1961, and was buried on the grounds of the school; hundreds of mourners attended her funeral in the Alice Freeman Palmer Building.