Anna Easter Brown 1879–1957
Edgecombe County, Edgecombe County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Anna Easter Brown 1879 1957. A founder in 1908 of Alpha Kappa Alpha, nationâs oldest sorority for African Americans; history teacher. Her grave is ¼ mile east.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
In 1908 Anna Easter Brown helped found Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first Greek-letter sorority established by and for African American women, born at Howard University as Black students built their own institutions of leadership and service. A history teacher by profession, Brown embodied the era's belief that education and organization were paths to uplift. Her grave lies a quarter mile east.
Why it matters
She stands among the founders of an enduring network of Black women's leadership that shaped education, service, and civil rights across the twentieth century.
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Related people
- · Anna Easter Brown
Related events
- · Founding of Alpha Kappa Alpha
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Anna J. Cooper
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Born in 1858, Anna J. Cooper rose from the Reconstruction-era South to become a renowned educator, orator, and early Black feminist. A graduate of St. Augustine's in Raleigh, she published A Voice from the South in 1892, a landmark of Black feminist thought that argued the progress of the race depended on the education of its women. She lived to 1964, her grave now resting blocks from here.
Peace College
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Founded in 1857 by Presbyterian elder William Peace as a school for women, the college's opening was delayed by the Civil War, during which its main building served as a Confederate hospital and later housed the Freedmen's Bureau. Classes finally began in 1872. Its early history reflects the upheaval and reordering of the wartime and Reconstruction South.
Brick School
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Established in 1895 through the philanthropy of Mrs. Joseph K. Brick, the Brick School was founded to educate African Americans in an era of rigid segregation and scarce opportunity. It grew into a junior college by 1926 before closing in 1933, and its buildings once stood on this ground.
John Williamson 1846–1911
Louisburg, NC
Born into slavery, John Williamson emerged from emancipation to serve six terms in the North Carolina legislature during Reconstruction and its long, contested aftermath. He also published a newspaper and championed education for the newly freed, using both the ballot and the press to press for Black advancement. His grave lies half a mile west of this marker.