James Wiley and Nancy Corbett Brown

 

James Wiley and Nancy Corbett Brown

 

James Wiley Brown, Jr. (1909-83)

James Wiley Brown wan born May 12, 1909, in Laurel, Mississippi, to the late James Wiley (b. Ohio 1864–d. Pelahatcchie, MS, 1936) and Emma C. White (b. Okolona, Chickasaw, MS, October 26, 1876–d. June 6, 1959) Brown; both of whom were college graduates and teachers in the public schools of Mississippi for more than half a century. He was the only son in a family of four children. Two of his sisters, Annie Mae McGhee (1901–-83) and Frenchie Leotine Porter (1912–79) preceded him in death. His remaining sister, Geneva Brown White (1907–89) died six years after James Wiley. James Wiley’s paternal grandparents were Gus (b. SC 1843–?) and Mary (b. MS 1846–?). (Need to verify this.–Mel Oakes)

He received his early education in the public schools of Jackson, Mississippi, and in the high school of the then Jackson College. He continued his academic training in higher education at Clark College, Atlanta, Georgia, where he received his AB degree; his BD degrees from Gammon Theological Seminary at Clark College and the Chicago Theological Seminary; and his MA degree from the University of Chicago in the field of Ethics and Society. He did further study in experimental psychology, sociology, social sciences, and religious education at Fisk University, Union College Laboratory in Schenectady, New York and Oxford in England, respectively.

He distinguished himself both in the teaching and ministerial fields. He began hie career as teacher-counselor at Fisk University; followed by home missionary pastorates at Selma, Alabama and Corpus Christi, Texas; a college minister and professor of religion and philosophy at Huston-Tillotson College, Austin, Texas and Jackson State University in Mississippi; and the Lincoln Memorial Congregational Church in Chicago, Illinois. In 1954, James became the pastor of the Lincoln Memorial Congregational Church in Chicago and served until 1958. At right, is a photo of James Wiley from December 16, 1939, issue of The Pittsburgh Courier, (Pittsburgh, PA).

On many occasions, he was staff counselor and resource person for the YMCA. and YWCA. and the United Church of Christ. Among his other activities were advisor on the board of Moton College Service Bureau, a program sponsored by the Moton Memorial Institute Incorporated and supported by a grant from the US Office of Education, which provided technical assistance to 83 predominately Black institutions in the related areas of proposal stimulation and preparation and Federal agency advocacy. He was active in the NAACP, Capital City Lions Club, the Community Workshop Market and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. He was an active member of the Congregational Church of Austin.

In 1960, at the height of the Civil Rights Revolution, James gave a lecture to Tuskegee Institute. He had spoken there in 1939 and 1949. The address can be read here-Tuskegee Address 1960.

In 1941, he married Nancy Corbett. Nancy was born February 16, 1920, in Union Ridge, Burlington, NC to Miles and Agnes Corbett. In 1935, Nancy, at age 15, is cooking at the residence of Robert L. Morgan, a lumberman in Burlington. In 1940, Nancy was living in Mabel Spoon's boarding house at 625 S. Broad Street, Burlington, with 10 other young men and women working a variety of jobs. Nancy was working as a domestic for a family in Burlington. It was during a summer church conference that she met her future husband, James Wiley Brown. Though James was 11 years her senior, they both shared an immediate affection for each other. The trajectory of her life changed dramatically as a result of meeting James. She attended Tillotson College in Austin, Texas and became a teacher. She taught in Chicago, in Dallas and at Oak Springs Elementary School in Austin for 22 years.

 

 

 

James Wiley and Nancy Corbett Brown Wedding, 1941

While James and Nancy did not have children of their own. They had godchildren. Thanks to Catherine Lee, Nancy's long time friend, we can include a few photos. Catherine and her husband, Bob, were executors on Nancy's estate. They arranged the sale of her home and created a scholarchip at Huston-Tillotson University.

:“She loved this place and wanted to be able to give back,” in the words of relative Catherine Lee and her husband Robert M. Lee, Jr. who are “children of choice” for the estate of James Wiley Brown and Nancy Corbett Brown. Nancy Brown, a 1940 Tillotson College graduate who enjoyed an elementary school teaching career, died days short of her 101 birthday in 2021, leaving a $410,000 bequest from her estate to Huston-Tillotson University. “She wanted her resources to help students in the future.”  
 
Pictured: Linda Y. Jackson, HT’s Vice President for Institutional Advancement; Catherine Lee; Dr. Melva K. Wallace, HT’s President and CEO; Brett Lee and Robert M. "Bob" Lee

James and Nancy Brown Photos

 

While in college, Nancy became a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. There she made lifetime friends. They helped her celebrate her 97th birthday, seen below.

Nancy Brown’s 97th birthday party at Pappadeaux's--From the left around the table --Catherine Lee, Joe Helen Belle, Rosalyn Martin Sessums, Anita Swain, Nancy Brown, Delphea Jester, Anita Lee, Carolyn Golden, Helen Wright, Mary Caldwell, Bobbie Duren, Brenda Hanson, Pat Oakes, Mel Oakes, Bob Lee

Nancy Brown

The Delta Foundation established the Nancy C. Brown scholarship to assist deserving students in attaining their higher education goals at Huston-Tillotson University. James and Nancy were major donors to Huston-Tillitson University.

James died on Monday, November 7, 1983, at 12:20 a.m. in Austin, Texas. Besides his wife, Nancy, he left to mourn his passing; his sister, Mrs. Geneva Brown White; three nephews, Robert W. and Dr. Brown O. McGhee of Memphis, Tennessee and John R. Blalock, Washington, D. C.; two nieces; Mrs. Johnnie P. Hamilton of Springfield, Virginia and Mrs. Annie C. Mathews of Memphis, Tennessee; other relatives and a host of friends.

He was preceded in death by sisters Annie Mae McGhee (1901–83), Frenchie Leotine Porter (1912–79).
---

"So live, that when thy summons to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged by his dungeon; but sustain'd and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of hie couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

from "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant reprinted from Yale Book of American Verse. Ed. Thomas R. Lounsbury. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912.

Read more at http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/thanatopsis.html#dTS8BGYAryHW47xy.99

Reverend Brown wrote at least two books. The first, was A Reading Seminar on Great Issues was published by McCutchan Press in Berkeley, CA, in 1966. His second was a philosophical book, Nature and Meaning: An Introduction to Philosophy: Handbook and Syllabus also published by McCutchan Press in Berkeley, CA, a year later in 1967.

 

Dr. Brown was field coordinator of the Moton College Service Bureau, 2001 S. Street, N.W., Suite 601, Washington, DC, in 1972, when they published Black Colleges and Federal Relations, A Handbook for Administrators. James wrote the section on “Federal Relations Office Management and Records.” Excerpts from the report are shown below.

Here is his entry under the section entitled, “Contributors.”

Below is another of Dr. Brown’s reports

 

Picture at right from the Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh PA) July 31, 1948.

Below are several entries from the Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, PA). (The paper appears to have had a section dedicated to news of prominent black individuals and families across the country.) The first from July 31, 1948, noting the Dr. Brown, then a Chaplain and Professor at Tillotson College in Austin, would be participating in a research project in Schenectady, NY. The second from October 25, 1952, is a very detailed and warm current biography of Dr. Brown by Carolyn Mitchell. At the time she was an instructor at Tillotson College and married to Lewis M. Mitchell, a local dentist. Dr. Mitchell, died in 1954 of a cerebral stroke. Here is a bit of history related to the Mitchells from the book, Before Brown: Herman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice (Jess and Betty Jo Hay Series), 2011, University of Texas Press, by Gary M. Lavergne.

The people Marshall selected to receive copies of the printed record of the Sweet case illustrated whom he considered key to victory. Besides Heman Sweatt, Marshall sent a copy to Dr. Robert Redfield of the University of Chicago, the anchor witness supporting the sociological approach, and Dr. Lewis M. Mitchell and his wife Carolyn, writing to the latter: “As you know, both of you played a most important part in this case, and I believe that you should have the record for whatever use you care to make of it other than throw it away.

.
“To Thurgood Marshall, who was doing a job that required 50,000 miles of travel each year to areas that had no acceptable accommodations for a professional black man (or no accommodations at all), and Carolyn, represented something as important as a well-written brief or a cogent legal argument: they reminded him and his lawyers that the people they were representing deserved the investment, sacrifice, and pain they endured. Carolyn, who was on the faculty of both Samuel Huston and Tillotson Colleges, would have had to leave Texas to earn a doctorate if she decided to study for one. To improve his skills as a dentist, Lewis had to travel to Tuskegee, Alabama, for professional development. But, perhaps even more important, was the fact that the Mitchells made Marshall as comfortable as he could be made in a state that did not want him; they made him laugh during a time where almost nothing was funny. He sipped their whiskey, ate their food, and sang songs with them. For Marshall, man who often seemed on the verge of physical exhaustion and who had fainted three times over the past ten years from overwork and a lack of sleep, the Mitchells were more than just gracious hosts. Before the end of the Sweatt case, Marshall was calling Carolyn his “Mama." Above is a picture of Lewis Mitchell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Austin-American Statesman, February 16, 1968.