Philip Lorenzo Brown Biography Author, historian and educator Philip Lorenzo Brown was born on January 16, 1909 in Annapolis, Maryland. His father operated a grocery store and worked as a maintenance man at the U.S. Naval Academy and his mother was a homemaker. In 1926, he earned his diploma from Stanton High School in Annapolis. While in high school, Brown enjoyed attending movies, playing football and working in the family grocery store. He graduated from Bowie Normal School, now know as Bowie State University, in 1928, and began his teaching career when he was just nineteen in the Anne Arundel County school system.
In 1932, Brown married Rachel Hall, a teacher at the two-room school where he served as principal. Shortly after his marriage he and his wife attended classes at Morgan State University where both earned their bachelor's degrees in education. After forming the Colored Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County in 1938, Brown led the effort to sue the Anne Arundel Board of Education for equal pay for African American teachers. The teachers were represented by former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. In 1955, Brown earned his master's degree in education from New York University.
During his tenure as a teacher in Anne Arundel County, he taught in several elementary schools and later at Bates High School, where he served as Vice Principal in 1966 when Anne Arundel County schools were finally integrated. In 1970, Brown retired from the school system.
Brown has spent most of his retirement years researching and documenting local black history, especially that of black schools. In 1988, Brown published his first book A Century of Separate But Equal Education in Anne Arundel County. Six years later he published a pictorial book documenting the history of blacks in Anne Arundel County, The Other Annapolis, the Life and Times of Blacks in Annapolis from 1900-1950. In 2000, Brown put pen to paper again when he published The Mount Moriah Story 1875-1973 a book detailing the creation and rise of the first African Methodist Episcopal church in Annapolis. Finally in 2001 he published his latest book, The Stanton Elementary School Story which was the first school in Annapolis for blacks and his alma mater.
Brown and his wife, Rachel, have two grown children and reside in Annapolis.
Brown was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 3, 2004.
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Rachel Hall Brown Biography Lifelong educator Rachel Hall Brown was born on November 16, 1912 in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Her mother was a homemaker and her father sold produce that he grew on their farm. She grew up the fourth of fourteen children. As she grew older, she was sent to live with relatives in nearby Baltimore because Glen Burnie did not have a high school for blacks to attend. She attended and graduated from Douglas High School in Baltimore in 1928. Douglas is also the alma mater of former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and entertainers Cab Calloway and Ann Brown.
Upon graduation she planned to attend Morgan State University, but was unable to due to financial reasons. Instead she attended Coppin State University where she earned her degree and graduated in 1930. She received her first teaching assignment upon graduation at Skidmore School in Anne Arundel County where she taught first, second and third grades. In 1932, Brown was reassigned to Jones school where she met and married her husband Philip, who was the principal of the two-room school where they both worked. Shortly after her marriage she and her husband attended classes at Morgan State University where both earned their bachelor's degrees in education. In 1938, her husband led the effort to sue the Anne Arundel Board of Education for equal pay for African American teachers. The teachers were represented by former Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. In 1955, Brown earned her master's degree in education from New York University.
In 1966, Brown helped to integrate Anne Arundel County Public schools when she was one of the first black teachers assigned to teach at Tyler Heights School. In 1970, Brown was appointed to the "White House Conference on Children and Youth," an organization that promotes understanding of child development and fostering children's mental and emotional health. Brown retired from the school system in 1973.
Brown and her husband Philip have two grown children and reside in Annapolis.
Brown was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 3, 2004.
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