Millicent E. Brown papers
Collection Overview
The collection consists of personal and professional documents, correspondence, and newspaper clippings relating to Millicent Brown's experience integrating Rivers High School; studying at Howard University and Florida State University; and teaching at Bennett College, Guilford College, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and the Governor's School of the College of Charleston. Other documents pertain to Brown's participation at a Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporation event, the Avery Research Center, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations, and other political and civic activities. Brown's writings focus on the Civil Rights Movement in Charleston, South Carolina and include papers given at conferences. Her essay The Dippity Doo Revolution: Or Grown Folks Don't Have a Clue
was included in Children of the Dream: Our own stories of Growing Up Black in America.
The Avery Research Center's Library has a copy of Brown's dissertation, Civil Rights Activism in Charleston, South Carolina. Brown is also featured on four Non-Commercial Videos,
located in the Avery Reading Room: Midday Program, Channel 5 with Millicent Brown,; Collections Workshop, Stern Center Ballroom, Don West and Millicent Brown; Funeral Artifacts; and Charleston's Chinese Box
.
Dates
- Creation: 1949-2003
Creator
- Brown, Millicent E. (Person)
Access Restrictions
No restrictions.
Copyright Notice
The nature of the Avery Research Center's archival holdings means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Avery Research Center claims only physical ownership of most archival materials.
The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
Biographical Note
In 1948, Millicent Ellison Brown was born in Charleston, South Carolina to MaeDe and J. Arthur Brown. Her father was the local and state president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1963, Millicent replaced her older sister Minerva as the primary plaintiff in a NAACP-sponsored lawsuit Millicent Brown versus Charleston County School District #20. Filed to desegregate the Charleston public school system, the lawsuit resulted in Brown becoming one of two African Americans students to integrate Rivers High School in 1963.
Graduating from Rivers High School in 1966, Brown then attended the College of Charleston and received her B.A. in History, 1975. She received her M.Ed. in Education from The Citadel in 1978.
From 1989 to 1991, Brown served as the Director of Exhibits and Museum Education at the Avery Research Center.
Brown earned a Ph.D. in History from Florida State University in 1997, writing her dissertation on the history of civil rights activism in Charleston from 1940 to 1970.
Brown has taught at several universities in North Carolina and South Carolina, including Bennett College (1995-1999), Guilford College (1999-2002), North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (2001-2002), and The Governor's School at the College of Charleston (2002).
Brown is currently in the History and Sociology department at Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC
Extent
2.75 linear feet (6 archival boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Millicent Ellison Brown (b. 1948) is an educator and civil rights activist. Born in Charleston to MaeDe and J. Arthur Brown, local and state president of NAACP (1955-1965), Brown, in 1963, replaced her older sister Minerva as the primary plaintiff in a NAACP-sponsored lawsuit (Millicent Brown vs. Charleston County School District #20).
The collection consists of personal and professional documents, correspondence, and newspaper clippings relating to Millicent Brown's experience integrating Rivers High School; studying at Howard University and Florida State University; and teaching at Bennett College, Guilford College, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and the Governor's School of the College of Charleston. Other documents pertain to Brown's involvement with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the Avery Research Center, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations, and other political and civic activities. Brown's writings focus on the Civil Rights Movement in Charleston, South Carolina and include papers given at conferences and her essay The Dippity Doo Revolution: Or Grown Folks Don't Have a Clue.
Collection Arrangement
1. Biographical Papers, 1984-2002.
2. Affiliations, 1949-2003.
3. Writings by Millicent Brown, Undated.
4. Audio-Visual Materials, 1988-1996.
5. Miscellaneous, 1988-2003.
Processing Information
Processed by Georgette Mayo, 2005
Encoded by Melissa Bronheim, July 2010, and Amanda Ross, February 2011
Funding from the
Funding from the
Subject
- Avery Research Center -- History (Organization)
- Bennett College (Greensboro, N.C.) (Organization)
- Florida State University (Organization)
- Guilford College (Organization)
- Howard University (Organization)
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Charleston Branch (Charleston, S.C.) (Organization)
- North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (Organization)
- Rivers High School (Charleston, S.C.) -- History (Organization)
- Brown, J. Arthur, 1914-1988 (Person)
- Charleston County School District No. 20 (S.C.) -- Trials, litigation, etc. (Organization)
- College of Charleston. Governor's School (Organization)
Topical
- African American college teachers
- African American universities and colleges
- African Americans -- Civil rights -- South Carolina -- Charleston
- African Americans -- Education -- South Carolina -- Charleston
- African Americans -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- History -- 20th century
- Race discrimination -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- History
- School integration -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- History
- Social action -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- History
- Title
- Inventory of the Millicent E. Brown Papers, 1949 - 2003 AMN 1003
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Processed by: Georgette Mayo; machine-readable finding aid created by: Melissa Bronheim and Amanda Ross
- Description rules
- Dacs
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- Description is in English
- Sponsor
- Funding from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation supported the processing of this collection. Funding from the Council on Library and Information Resources supported the encoding of this finding aid.
Repository Details
Part of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture Repository
125 Bull Street
Charleston South Carolina 29424 United States
843-953-7608
averyresearchcenter@cofc.edu