Pauline A. Young

Young was admitted to the hospital for surgery in May 1991. Young was only home for two weeks before being re-hospitalized on June 22. Young died at the age of 90, on June 26, 1991, in the Wilmington Hospital.

After retirement from Howard High School, Young taught as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica from 1962 to 1964. There, she met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and took part in the 1963 March on Washington, where King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. Young joined King's March for Equality from Selma to Montgomery on the last day. She remarked that her experience in the march was "horrible" as "some (whites) were nice very nice," but there were "nasty white people just waiting for the troops to go." Young later went on to participate in the Solidarity March in Wilmington.

As a world traveler, Young explored places such Egypt, the (then) Soviet Union, and Germany. While in Germany, she was allotted the opportunity to greet the African-American track and field athlete Jesse Owens at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Young also visited places such as Canada, Chicago, Maine, and the Carolinas.

Young described herself as "race conscious and militant about it." During the summer of 1935, she worked with the journalist, educator, and civil rights activist W. E. B. DuBois in a temporary office. The two were collaborating on The Negro Encyclopedia, which was to be subsidized by the Phelps Stokes Fund. Unfortunately, adequate funding was never provided.

Pauline pursued further higher education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, where she earned a B.A degree in History and English. Young was the only black student in her class. It is here that she participated in graduate work such as educational tests and measurements. After graduating, Young attempted to pursue an acting career. However, after three months, Young decided that life on the stage was not for her. She moved to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia where she worked at the front desk of the black owned Hilltop House. She did not last long at this job, moving on to teach social studies and Latin for a year at Huntington High School, an all Black school, in Newport News, Virginia. It was there that she was thrown off a bus because she did not give her seat up to a white man. In 1928, Young became a librarian at Howard High School's Stevens Memorial Library, and she eventually joined the staff of her alma mater, Howard High School, to teach History and Latin. In 1935, she received her graduate degree from the Columbia University School of Library Service. Young later taught and proctored at the University of Southern California and served as a member of the press staff at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In 1942, Young completed 114 hours of ground school work and twelve hours of dual flight at the black-owned Coffey School of Aeronautics in Chicago, Illinois. During this time, in 1943, she underwent fifty hours of pre-flight instruction for teachers at Temple University and taught pre-flight at Howard's night school.

"Delaware: A History of the First State" is a three-volume Delaware history book. Young wrote a chapter in this book titled "The Negro in Delaware: Past and Present" that focused on the early history of African-Americans in the state. This work was the first comprehensive history of Black Americans in Delaware. Many scholars regularly turn to the writings because it is a source of information relating to the heritage of all aspects of Black history. In this book, Pauline addresses race relations in the state and expresses her concerns with Delaware's lack of progression. Young began her collection of data back in the 1920s. In 1947, Young finalized and published her chapter. Miss Young's chapter on Black history in Delaware continues to be the cornerstone of research in Delaware history. Up until this publication, there had not been any organized, documented chronicle of the black community.

Young was a leader in preserving black history in Delaware. Young began collecting memorabilia, newspaper and magazine clippings in the 1920s. The works that she compiled focused on Black history specifically related to Delaware. Young also documented black family histories. When asked about how her collection began Young said, "I just started out saving whatever I could get my hands on." Her extensive collection was considered to contain works of scholarly importance. After she retired, students interested in Black history came to her for sources and information.

Young served at Howard High over a span of 36 years, from 1919 until her retirement in 1955. Shortly after her retirement, she helped found the American Federation of Teachers. In 1957, she won $700 on the television quiz game show Tic-Tac-Dough. At the age of 62, Young joined the Peace Corps, serving in Jamaica for two years, where she helped train librarians and staff members. For three months, she served as a librarian of the Jamaican Scientific Research Council. It was here that she worked on the Jamaican library's first indexing system, where there were over 80,000 books that needed cataloging. She described her experience as "marvelous for me as a Negro to see where discrimination is non-existent and offense is not taken at the mention of a person's racial characteristics." Upon returning to the states, she kept busy by lecturing and substitute teaching. In 1968, she taught an Afro-American history course at the Central YMCA in Wilmington, Delaware. This class was free to all residents of the inner-city.

The Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library Archive Research Center houses the Pauline A. Young papers (1903-1991) which contains correspondence, articles and essays, photographs, programs and brochures, biographical materials, and scrapbooks and other personal items. The University of Delaware Special Collections Department holds the Pauline A. Young Collection (1924-1988) which also contains the items listed above.

Pauline Alice Young (August 17, 1900 – June 26, 1991) was an African-American teacher, librarian, historian, lecturer, community activist, humanitarian, and individualist.