© 2012 - 2014 Flagler County Branch National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Jacqueline Browne took the lead in reorganizing The Flagler County Branch of the NAACP when she was approached by individuals who
had experienced bias within Flagler County. Mrs. Browne was a member of the Palm Coast Service District Advisory Council; Chairman
of the Council’s Public Works Committee; Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African-American Cultural Society, and President
of the Democratic Women’s Club, including a member and officer of numerous organizations in Flagler County and in New York.
She
convened The Committee of Intent for the establishment of the Flagler County NAACP on August 5, 1999, at her home. The interim members
elected were: Jacqueline A. Browne, president; Calvin Edghill, vice-president; Martha Doughty, secretary; Mildred O’Bryan, treasurer.
Other members were Anne and Ralph Carter, Elsie Chappell, former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Joyce Cumberbatch, William
Dowdy, Howard Elliott, Gloria Forrester, the Rev. Frank Giddens, Jr., Joyce Haynes, Shirley Horne, Jeanne Lea, Audrey Marcus, Jeroline
McCarthy, William Robinson, Mary and John Scripp, and Howard Wilson.
The Committee worked to identify new and transferred members and obtain the branch charter that existed. Helping to secure the charter were: Daytona Times Publisher Charles W. Cherry and Jacques Hodge of the Volusia County-Daytona Beach NAACP.
On April 18, 2000, Whitfield Jenkins, third vice-president of the Florida State
NAACP, and Thomas Poole, Sr., co-chair of the Branch Revitalization Committee, attended the general
membership meeting at Palm Coast Community Center and conducted a workshop on branch revitalization and the election process. They
returned May 24, 2000, to review the nomination, the election process, and to conduct the election of interim officers for Branch
5147 of the Flagler County NAACP. The candidates listed on the ballot were duly elected - namely, Jacqueline A. Browne, president;
Calvin Edghill, 1st vice president; William Robinson, 2nd vice president; Jeanne E. Lea, secretary; Elsie Chappell, treasurer, and
directors Herman Bailey, Joyce Cumberbatch, William Dowdy, Howard Elliott, the Rev. Daisy Mae Henry, John Scripp, and Patricia Young.
The appointed directors at a subsequent meeting were: Lucy Davis, James Haynes, Joyce Haynes, Audrey Marcus, and Robert Montgomery.
Mrs.
Browne was the wife of Harold Browne and the mother of Janet Browne Avery and Judith Browne Dianis. Mrs. Browne earned her Bachelor’s
and Master’s Degrees from New York’s Hunter College and a Professional Degree in Education from St. John’s University. The educator
became Deputy Superintendent of District 29 in Queens; Administrative Superintendent for School Improvement, and in 1987, was appointed
Community Superintendent of District 25 in Flushing, Queens, overseeing the education of more than 23,000 students in 29 schools.
On retiring, Mrs. Browne was appointed Special Assistant for the State Education Department Services for New York City schools. Moreover,
she was a “Drum Major for Justice,” and often could be found leafleting, protesting, and “standing up” against injustice.
The courage and commitment of these men and women leaders of the struggle for African-American civil rights energized a movement that spanned generations
The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909 by a diverse group composed of W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimké, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, William English Walling (the last son of a former slave-holding family), and Florence Kelley, a social reformer and friend of Du Bois. After a race riot in Springfield, Illinois in 1908, "The Call" went out to Northerners to find a way to create social equality.
On May 30, 1909, the Niagara Movement conference took place at New York City's Henry Street Settlement House, from which an organization of more than 40 individuals emerged, calling itself the National Negro Committee.
Jacqueline Arlene Browne
1932 - 2001
