Letitia Woods Brown

Letitia Woods Brown (1915-1976)

Letitia Woods Brown was born October 24, 1915, in Tuskegee, Alabama, to Matthew and Evadne (Adam) Woods.  She obtained a bachelor's degree from Tuskegee in 1935, a master's degree from Ohio State University in 1937, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1966.

Her employment in the field of history spans over four decades. She taught classes and worked in public arenas to preserve sites important to African American history. teacher 1935 to 1936  in Macon County, Alabama. instructor in history at Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama from 1937-1940 tutor in LeMoyne Owen College in Memphis, Tennessee from 1940-1945 senior Fulbright lecturer at Monash University and Australia National University in 1968 a consultant to the Federal Executive Institute from 1971 to 1973 professor of history at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., from 1971 to 1976.

In 1947 she married Theodore E. Brown, an economist with the State Department. 

Her work in Washington, D.C. is renowned in taking aims to place sites of local and national importance to African American history in the minds and agendas of agencies such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation and other organizations. To further the preservation cause, she served as a  member of the Committee on Landmarks of the National Capital.  During the course of her professional career, she also wrote several books on the Washington, D.C.

Washington from Banneker to Douglass, 1791-1870, 1971 co-author Elise M. Lewis Washington in the New Era, 1870-1970, co-author Elise M. Lewis Free Negroes in the District of Columbia, 1790-1846, co-author Richard Wade. An accomplished instructor, activist, scholar and mentor, Letitia Woods Brown died of cancer on August 3, 1976 in Washington, D.C. 

Source information from: American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s               

Bibliography
Free Negroes in the District of Columbia, 1790-1846 Oxford University Press (September 14, 1972)

Washington in the New Era, 1870-1970 Education Dept., National Portrait Gallery; [for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.] (1972)

Washington from Banneker to Douglass, 1791-1870 Education Dept., National Portrait Gallery; [for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.] (1972)

Residence patterns of Negroes in the District of Columbia, 1800-1860 Columbia Historical Society (1971)