Rose Browne

Rose Butler Browne (1897-1986) was an African American educator, engineer and author of Love My Children. Rose Butler Browne was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1897. She moved with her family to Newport, Rhode Island where she grew up. While working as a live-in domestic she earned a bachelor's degree at Rhode Island College. She went on to earn her master's degree at Rhode Island College and then to Harvard University where, in 1939 she became the first black woman to earn a doctoral degree in education. In 1950, she received an honorary degree from Rhode Island College, and in 1969 a seven-story Rhode Island College residence hall was named in her honor. Browne died in 1986 at the age of 89.

Dr. Browne taught for many years at Virginia State University and North Carolina College. She was devoted to improving education for minority children. Dr. Browne served on the facilities of Virginia State College, West Virginia State College and Institute, and Bluefield State College in West Virginia before becoming chairman of the education department at North Caroline College. A crusader for black rights, Dr.Browne once refused to send students into teaching jobs in West Virginia as long as State Board of Education continued paying black teachers lower salaries than white teachers. The publicity and subsequent shortage of teachers forced the board to alter its policies. After retiring in 1963, Dr.Browne operated a day care center for children at the Mt.Vernon Baptist Church in Durham, where her husband was the pastor. Returning to Rhode Island, she operated a summer school aimed at the culture gap faced by black children, and later worked with senior citizens. In her 1969 autobiography, Love My Children, Dr.Browne attributed most of her success to the influence of her great-grandmother, Charlett Ann Linsday, referred to as the "High Priestess" by her family. The daughter of a native American chief, she married a southern slave, worked six years to buy his freedom and later, hope of improving the life of his children, migrated to a Boston ghetto. There is a leadership class and mentoring program offered through the Center for Leadership Development named in her honor at the University of Rhode Island.