A quest for uplift : Charlotte Hawkins Brown and the Palmer Memorial Institute

This study investigated the life and arts education practices of Charlotte Hawkins Brown. Framed around her life, 1883-1961, this study concentrated on the years, 1901- 1961, when she built and ran the Palmer Memorial Institute. An examination into Dr. Brown’s early life and artistic influences highlighted the roles of her family and school in her development of appreciation for and aptitudes in the arts. Evidence of arts programs offered at the Palmer Memorial Institute included school catalogs and programs, state reports, student and teacher testimonies, and photographs. Dr. Brown’s role as an arts educator beyond the Palmer Memorial Institute, including her civil rights speeches and her struggles to obtain financial and social support for developing arts programming, added to this analysis. This study concluded with my argument that Charlotte Hawkins Brown should be considered as an arts educator and presents a number of possibilities for future research into arts education at Palmer Memorial Institute and other related areas of Dr. Brown’s life.