William Washington Browne

Rev. William Washington Browne (October 20, 1849 – December 21, 1897) was an African American fraternal society leader, temperance worker, and minister. He was the founder and head of the Grand United Order of True Reformers and the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers, a benevolent, temperance, and fraternal society for African Americans that was based in Richmond, Virginia.

Early life Ben Browne was born on October 20, 1849, into slavery on a Georgia plantation of Benjamin Pryor in Habersham County. His parents were Joseph Browne and Mariah Browne, both of whom were enslaved as field workers. As a child, he was the companion and servants of his enslaver's son. There, he was trained to be a jockey. Browne founded fifteen chapters, called fountains, and was elected Grand Worthy Master on February 7, 1877. He became its Grand Worthy Master of the State of Virginia on January 11, 1881.

Controversies and scandals Browne gained a national reputation for his work with the Grand Fountain. However, he lost his job as a pastor because the Richmond Colored Methodist Episcopal Church bishop objected to the time Browne spent working for the Gand Fountain. Browne converted to the African Methodist Episcopal Church but never again oversaw a congregation. This demonstrates Browne's commitment and willing for self-sacrifice for the Grand Fountain; in the early 1880s, his salary from the True Believers was modest and often late. Later in life, Browne quarreled with others over back pay and an insurance policy that he felt he was owed by the Grand Fountain. He was paid nearly $30,000 of the $50,000 he was seeking before new national laws forbid this kind of payment for insurance workers. At the time, his salary was $1,800 a year.

Brown also got involved in a scandal in March 1895 when Northern politicians visited Richmond. Robert T. Teamoh an African American legislator from Massachusetts, and John Mitchell Jr., an African American newspaper publisher attempted to each lunch with the Governor of Virginia, instead of going to the designated "colored' dining room. When tensions rose in Richmond, Brown wrote a letter to the public criticizing Teamoh and Michell for making race relations worse and asking whites to not take their anger out on other Blacks, noting that most Blacks were in favor of segregation. Many Blacks began to view him as an "Uncle Tom", both in Richmond and across the United States. One the national level, Browne was associated with Black moderates such as Booker T. Washington.

Browne's disagreement with Mitchell turned into a battle for control of the Black newspaper market. Browne changed the Grand Fountain's monthly Reformer into a weekly newspaper, hoping to take over the market from Mitchell's Richmond Planet. He also fired the editor of the Reformer for publishing an editorial that seemed to support Mitchell. Although the Grand Fountain was not affiliated with the Baptist Church, he took control of another newspaper, Virginia Baptist. In 1896, Browne challenged Mitchell for the City Council seat for Jefferson Ward, Richmond; neither man won and the Democrats who oversaw local elections gave the council position to a white man.

Honors In 1895, he was one of eight men selected to present African Americans at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta.

Personal life While teaching in Alabama, Browne met and married Mary A. "Molly" Graham on August 16, 1873. The couple had no children but adopted a boy and a girl. Molly was a seamstress and supported the family with her work in the 1880s, during Browne's early years with the True Believers in Richmond. They lived at 105 West Jackson Street in Richmond.

In 1897, doctors found a cancerous tumor on Browne's arm but he declined its amputation. Browne died in Washington, D.C., on December 21, 1897, from cancer that spread from his arm. His funeral was large and featured many from Richmond's Black community. He was buried at Union Sycamore Cemetery in Richmond, part of Barton Heights Cemeteries, but was disinterred under the instructions of his widow and reinterred on May 4, 1918, in Woodland Cemetery in Richmond.