"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : CHARLOTTE HAWKINS BROWN

Recently, I went online to see how much the current National Studentloan Debt is. Well, I was thinking that since President Biden had forgiven some of the studentloan debt during his term in office that the studentloan debt amount would have decreased, but it hadn't. As a matter of fact, the number is close to what it was before President Biden implemented his studentloan forgiveness program. As of March 2024, the total student loan debt in the United States was $1.727 trillion dollars! Well, ain't that a biscuit? Next, I found another interesting online article that said that when it comes to taking out studentloans and defaulting on studentloans,"BLACK WOMEN" are ranked number one out of any other group or race. Also, an online article reported that 67% of Black students who attended, but did not complete a for-profit college defaulted on their studentloans! Call it a conspiracy theory, but it seems to me that certain people in high places are using Black People's strong belief in Higher Education to lure Blacks into the proverbial Studentloan Debt "BLACK HOLE!" Jeepers Creepers, on to this week's Black Pioneer. Charlotte Hawkins Brown was born on June 11, 1883, in Henderson North Carolina. When she was very young, her mother moved her and her brother to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Charlotte graduated from Cambridge English High School, and then enrolled in Salem State Normal School.A Lady by the name of Alice F. Palmer stepped in and paid for all of Charlotte's school expenses! In 1901, after completing just one year of college, she was hired to teach at the Bethany Institute school for Colored children, in Sedalia, North Carolina. A year later the school officials decided to close the school. So what did Charlotte do? She did the same thing that a Colored man named Lawrence C Jones did when he founded Piney Woods School in Rankin County, Mississippi. She went and founded a new school called, "The Palmer Memorial Institute," in honor of the lady who had paid for all of her college expenses. Her school officially opened on October 10, 1902, as a day and boarding school for Colored children. Interesting enough, the Palmer Memorial Institute lasted throughout the turbulent times of the Great Depression, the rise of Jim Crow in America, and the Civil Rights Movement as well. In 1971, there was a fire at the school that prompted the Board of Directors to finally close the school for good. On January 11, 1961, after almost 60: years years of tireless dedication to educating Black Youth, Charlotte Hawkins Brown was laid to rest in Greensboro, North Carolina. Furthermore, several of the buildings of her school were restored, and are known today as The Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum.