Item #3905 [Petition Pertaining to the Activities of the Hattie Q. Brown Club, an African-American Women's Social Club]. African Americana, Hattie Q. Brown Club, Florida.

[Petition Pertaining to the Activities of the Hattie Q. Brown Club, an African-American Women's Social Club]

Palatka, Fl. 1947. [5]pp., typed on folio sheets, stapled. Old folds, minor wear and creasing, light dust-soiling. Very good. Item #3905

An unsigned petition from the Hattie Q. Brown Club, asking "The Honourable City Commission of the City of Palatka, Florida...to recognise its status as the 'Hattie Q Brown Club which the Commission gave leave to use certain City property in Block 81...in furtherance of the welfare of colored children." Apparently a splinter group of the club was also claiming to be the Hallie Q. Brown Club and was illegally collecting rents on the groups club house. In asking for official recognition, the group details their history of helping African-American youth in the area "by equiping and over-seeing a playground for them." The authors then detail the internal conflicts which occurred amongst the club members, the procession of club leadership (including several named individuals), and the circumstances which led to the club's incorporation, ending with the filing of a charter with a Putnam County judge. The fourth section of the club's petition enumerates their activities and plans in "furtherance of the welfare of the colored children of Palatka." The first two points detail the land clearance and construction of the park and their further plans for same; the third point relates to a study the club has undertaken "of the problem of juvenile delinquency among the colored children." Part of their plan is to work with law enforcement "to work out a parole system for first offenders of tender age," as well as "provide a method and place for the incarceration of colored children accused of, or guilty of, infractions of the law, who are less than 12 years of age, so that such children may be kept safely in custody and yet not exposed to the bad example and toughening influence of imprisonment in the County jail." Hattie Quinn Brown was a pioneering African-American educator who actively sought the formation of African-American women's clubs throughout the country.

Price: $750.00