Underwriting the future: two women will send 146 kids to college

Ebony, April, 1989 by Roxanne Brown

The eager students have plenty of reasons to be grateful to Mrs. Brown. The high-powered businesswoman will set aside $10,000 annually for 12 years for their college education. She estimates that the college costs will be close to $600,000 for the 27 youngsters. The trust account will mature at just under $300,000. Mrs. Brown is positive that she will raise the rest of the money. Possessing a no-nonsense, enterprising attitude, the mother of two adult daughters does not miss any opportunities to solicit computers or encyclopedias from corporate donors for her school children. "I do business with them and they want my business," she explains, matter-of-factly.

The seventh of 12 children, Mrs. Brown grew up in the Mississippi Delta where her parents owned 60 acres of land, and where all of the children worked the cotton fields. Barely 17 when she arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mrs. Brown worked first as a beautician before she began training for real estate. Determined to earn a college degree, she went to school at night while working and raising her daughters, and in 1985 earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of San Francisco. Mrs. Brown stresses that she and her husband, Joseph Brown, a roofing contractor, are by no means rich. "The average working person can afford to educate one child--maybe not 27," she says. "If we want these kids to be educated, [we as parents, community leaders, churches], we're going to have to stop being so selfish."

Both Mrs. Brown and Dr. Hayre are hopeful that other Blacks will be further inspired by their efforts and will consider funds for higher education as a gift to Black children. "Think about it," suggests Dr. Hayre. "It took me a couple of years to decide if this was something I could do, not only financially, but physically and psychologically. But, of all the worthy causes in the world, here was the opportunity to see where my investment goes, to see it progress, to see how it turns out."