HALLIE Q. BROWN COMMUNITY HOUSE:

The Hallie Q. Brown Community House had its beginnings in 1908 when African American members of the Odd Fellows and Masons fraternal lodges purchased six lots on Aurora Street between Kent and Mackubin located within St. Paul's largely African American Rondo neighborhood. In 1914 the Union Hall Association was organized and it constructed a neighborhood center on one of the lots. The St. Paul Urban League and the YWCA contributed funds and other support during 1923-1929. The YWCA was forced to withdraw its funding in 1929 and a new interracial committee was formed to carry on the work. I. Myrtle Carden of Pittsburgh was hired as the director, a position she held until 1949, and the center was named for Civil Rights and women's suffrage activist Hallie Q. Brown (ca. 1845-1949). During Carden's tenure, Hallie Q. Brown became the second largest neighborhood center in St. Paul. Subsequent directors were Alice Sims Onque (1949-1965), Henry R. Thomas (1965-1978), Fred B. Williams (1978- ), and Richard M. Mangram. During the 1970s the organization's name was changed to the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center.

The organization began as a largely cultural center to serve the unmet needs of the Black community in the city, as well as to create better relationships with the white community. Over the years the center grew to provide educational, social, cultural, and human services activities for community residents of all ages. In the latter 1970s it constructed a new, larger facility-the Martin Luther King Center-on Kent Street to accommodate its wide-ranging programs.

Return to top

The records include miscellaneous administrative correspondence; minutes of the board, the steering committee, and many of the program units that operated under the aegis of the house; photographs, clippings, flyers, and other publicity materials; and some financial miscellany. The records give some insights into the history of the most significant and long-standing local organization serving St. Paul's African American community.

Return to top

These records are organized into the following three sections:

Return to top

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Hallie Q. Brown Community House Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 8479; 9678; 9923; 11,710; 11,924; 12,253; 12,380; 16,507

Processing Information:

Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Digitized by: Minnesota Historical Society, December 2019

Catalog ID number: 990017349970104294

Return to top

Return to top

Return to top

Return to top

A number of monographs are in the Minnesota Historical Society book collection. Buttons issued by the center are in the Minnesota Historical Society objects collections.

Return to top

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

African American children -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

African American men -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- Societies and clubs.

African American social workers -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

African American teenagers -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- Societies and clubs.

African American women -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- Societies and clubs.

African Americans -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- Economic conditions.

African Americans -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- Social conditions.

African Americans -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- Social life and customs.

Aged -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- Societies and clubs.

Charities -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Children -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- Services for.

Day care centers -- Minnesota --Saint Paul.

Social settlements -- Minnesota --Saint Paul.

Social work with African Americans -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Women social workers -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- African Americans

World War, 1939-1945 -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul -- War work.

Persons:

Brown, Hallie Q., (Hallie Quinn), 1859-1949, author.

Carden I. Myrtle, -1950, author.

Onque, Alice Sims, -1966, author.

Places:

Saint Paul (Minn.) -- Race relations.

Document Types:

Photographs.

Radio scripts.

Occupations:

Social workers -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Return to top