Louise Brown Birthday Fund

Help us present Louise Brown with a birthday present which will allow her to focus on leading new generations towards a better Lowcountry. You can contribute to her birthday fund by making a deposit to the account listed on the deposit slip shown below on this page. 

When Louise Brown was finally driven from Charleston after the Hospital Strike, unable to find work of any kind, she had almost nothing. She would prosper in family and friends. She finally received the grudging recognition that she is one of Charleston's hero's (recognition which came too late for most of the other 11 nurses which stood with her). However that recognition arrived only decades after those great events had been absorbed into Charleston's distorted story of it self. 

Louise never received the back pay she was promised when the MUSC hospital strike was settled. The happy ending Charleston is so eager to recite, contains a grievous falsehood. 

The official histories circulating online will tell you that there was an agreement. They will say that the nurses got back pay. They will emphasize that there was no violence and that everyone in Charleston always gets along. It is a central fantasy in the history used to sell real estate, hotel rooms and restaurant meals in a city which has turned it's back on it's people and marketed itself as a leisure product for visitors, people who want to buy real estate and students with money that want to go to class near the beach. 

Despite the momentous events which took place there, no marker designates the standoff which might have written Charleston into history along side Selma, Kent State and Orangburg. The reality is that Louise and her friends were too brave to retreat, to proud to surrender and too important to hurt. Character really does matter, even in a nation where  felons hold high office and pardon people who riot. 

Left, When Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit was disinvited from a public meeting, the organization which had invited and registered our three person delegation said they had room for only one person. They decided the little old black lady would be the one to let in because she didn't look like she would be any trouble. We chuckled, left for a drink and left Louise to demonstrate why you really need to know history if you are going to mess around in Charleston. Note the two empty Chairs next to Louise. Turned out one full chair was more than enough. 

While Louise is rich in honor and character, she has very little money. Her family will never let her suffer, but Louise is as hard to give something to as she is to take something from. She does not want charity. 

However the women who arrived in Charleston the day before Judge Norton held the intial hearing with Twenty-two dollars in her pocket, does believe in birthdays. We have been able to persuade her that you only turn 90 once and she deserves to enjoy some reward for her live of service before she turns 100 and has to slow down. 

We're not asking you for the money to buy Louise groceries. We gave her that last week when we picked up her tab at the Food Lion on King Street. We're not asking you for the money to buy a new pair of shoes. Louise has lots of shoes. 

We asking the City and region she has devoted her life to to provide for her in a way which will assure that she never has to hope that someone will work their way around her sense of pride to slip her a twenty or pick up a meal for her at H&R Sweet Shop in the old village ever again. 

Click on the image at right to get a full sized version of the deposit slip to print out and take to the bank. You can also wire money to this account. 

We are asking you and your friends to donate a sum which will assure that on May 4th. when we hold the closing event of her celebration, that she will, with her other income, be comfortable for the remainder of her life.

We would hope that would be so she could go home to relax and enjoy her great grandchildren, but we know better. She wants to be able to focus on the fight. She wants to teach the young and return courage to their parents. She wants to march out with her friends behind her and make a stand. She wants to put back oppression and lead the march past city hall to a better Lowcountry. 

She can still do that. We can certainly make sure she doesn't have to worry about a safe and decent place to live.