Rose Butler Browne Is Dead: Encountering the New York Times Announcement of the Death of a "Black Pioneer in Education"

• In Event: 47.059 - Pioneering Women

Abstract

This presentation examines the life and career of Dr. Rose Butler Browne (1897-1986) who the New York Times labeled as a “black pioneer in education” upon her death. Indeed, she was a pioneer in education as the first black woman to graduate from the University of Rhode Island, the first black woman to receive a doctorate in education from Harvard University, the first woman president of the Virginia State Teachers Association, and the first to head a Ph.D. program in education at a historically black college or university. More than documenting a pioneer, however, Browne’s biography holds the key to understanding how Montessori principles and practices entered black normal schools and colleges in the Age of Jim Crow.

Author

• Hilton Kelly, Davidson College