Dr. Vivian Ayers Allen and the Brainerd Institute
The story of a Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet and her alma mater
![Typewritten on onion skin paper. Section of letter penned by 6 alumni to the Board of National Missions. Top of page says WHY WAS BRAINERD CLOSED? in all caps. The answer "WE DON'T KNOW!" follows, also in all caps.](/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_16_9_350w/public/2026-02/PNS_BRAINERD_006.png?h=e4f21e1c&itok=ZKbZiCJd "Typewritten on onion skin paper. Section of letter penned by 6 alumni to the Board of National Missions. Top of page says WHY WAS BRAINERD CLOSED? in all caps. The answer "WE DON'T KNOW!" follows, also in all caps.")
Dr. Vivian Ayers Allen grew up in Chester, South Carolina, where she was born in late July 1923. She would go on to become a Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet, playwright, cultural activist, museum founder, classicist, mother and more. She passed in the summer of last year, on August 18, 2025. In 1939, she was a member of the final graduating class of the Brainerd Institute; upon her death, she was laid to rest on the grounds of the school. Today we remember her life and legacy and share a few glances into the past of the historic school that she, her parents before her, and their parents before them attended.
The Brainerd Institute can trace its roots back to the fall of 1866, when a “Miss Richmond of New York” moved her small class of students from their one-room building to the second floor of a large storage building in Chester, South Carolina. Two years later, the Rev. Samuel Loomis arrived on the scene, declaring the school as headquarters for the missionary work conducted by the Freedmen’s Bureau.
1869 saw the purchase of an old mansion and 20 acres of land “to meet the need for more space.” That same year, the school was named in honor of David Brainerd, who had served as a missionary to the Native American tribes living along the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers.
When the Rev. and Mrs. Loomis resigned from their positions at the school, they were succeeded by the Rev. and Mrs. John Marquis of Pennsylvania, who served the longest tenure at the school — from 1893 until 1928. During their time at Brainerd, the couple oversaw the addition of new buildings to the campus, including Kumler Hall in 1916. One hundred years later, Kumler Hall is the only remaining building on the Brainerd Institute campus.
As of 1930, the Institute had 14 people on staff, “Twenty-two in senior class at opening of fall term,” and the school was “rated as one of the accredited high schools of South Carolina.” Brainerd was authorized as a two-year junior college in 1934. In a 1936 pamphlet published by the Board of National Missions, readers learn of the school’s varied curriculum, which included “The only kindergarten for Negro children in the county … evening classes in chair-caning and fancy handicraft … some industrial training …” and more.
And then, three years later, during the commencement exercises for the graduating class, it was announced that the Brainerd Institute would be closing. The 1938 class of graduates — the school's 70th commencement class — which included a young Vivian Ayers would be the last.
The sudden closing of the Brainerd Institute caused hardship, upset, and frustration within the Black community of Chester. Within box 23 of the Records of the UPCUSA’s Board of National Missions’ Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (RG 301.8), lives a single folder of ephemera relating to the Brainerd Institute. Though the material is scant— no more than 10 to 20 pieces of paper — it is extremely emotive and telling.
Take, for example, the “special letter to the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.” penned “by six Presbyterian laymen, members of the Brainerd Institute Club of Washington, D.C. — born in South Carolina and educated at Brainerd Institute and other Presbyterian institutions,” and postmarked October 30, 1939. The six men were Percy Q. Head, William I. Blake, Chester McKnight, W.F. De Bardeleben, James F. Orr, and Roosevelt Worthy. “This is our protest (be assured also that we are not alone) as loyal graduates of the school and members of the Presbyterian church against the procedure in closing the school,” they wrote (emphasis theirs).
They continued: “After seventy-one years of faithful and fruitful operation the doors of that wonderful institution have now been closed. Like a thunder bolt out of a clear sky, word came during the last commencement announcing that the school would forthwith close its doors as an educational institution. So terrific was the shock that that hallowed spot is still receiving the reverberations of the groans and sobs of the brokenhearted pupils and patrons. It was indeed a never-to-be-forgotten day for those present ... To this community, it was hardly believable that after serving the church and an almost forgotten race so well for these many years that the work should be so suddenly and summarily terminated…”
They then offer up a few of the results of the school’s closure, which includes items such as: “(1) The educational aspirations of 244 boys and girls were blasted and shattered as mere glass before a drunkard’s hammer; (2) the people’s love, hopes and prayers for the school’s future were ignored… (4) the door of opportunity for a Christian education was closed to hundreds of Negro youth in the state whose main hope for such an education was enrollment at Brainerd.” And when prompted with the question, “Why was Brainerd closed?” they answered with a resounding, all capital “WE DON’T KNOW!” before adding that “to say that the day for such a school is passed is only short of fatuous twaddle.”
One of the collaborators of this letter, Percy Q. Head, penned his own correspondence to the Board, a handwritten and honest plea. “Now if the Board can’t get the money let the friends of the school have a chance,” he wrote, before concluding that, "Church schools are the death knell to radicalism and race hatred ... We truly believe that church schools are not only the salvation of our race, but they are and will ever be the protector of all American liberties."
The decision to close the Brainerd Institute was made by the Board of National Missions at the end of April, during its 1939 Annual Meeting. Along with the school in Chester, two others were to be closed: the American Indian Institute in Wichita, Kansas, as well as the Ingleside-Fee Institute in Burkeville, Virginia. L. R. Brown, the superintendent of Brainerd, penned his first reply on May 2 in which he expressed his sadness. Another letter followed closely after, sent on May 16 to Edna Voss, from whom he'd received the news. Brown wrote not only on his own behalf, but in the interest of the 250 students enrolled at the Institute. He suggested and pleaded for a merger, mentioned that he is "receiving daily applications from new students for admission for next term," and asked for "only a few minutes hearing before the Staff" of the Board.
Over the course of the next months, he and many others would write letter upon letter to whoever they could — to Virginia Ray, the representative who had made the announcement on commencement day; to Edna Voss, the secretary who sent the regretful notice to the executives of the Board— in the hopes that their passion would swing the doors of Brainerd open once more.
Their pleas, however, fell on deaf ears as the Board continued with the closing. The alumni, faculty, and families tied to the Institute — those who had been educated there, housed and clothed there, and welcomed into the community there — were to spend the rest of their years grieving this loss.
Vivian Ayers Allen was a member of the final graduating class at Brainerd Institute. While there, she’d studied languages and music — Latin, French, and piano. After graduating, she pursued further education, saw her writing career blossom, and was married in 1945 to Andrew Arthur Allen, Sr. They had four children together before separating in 1954: Andrew Arthur Allen Jr., Debbie Allen, Hugh Allen, and Phylicia Rashad.
Ayers Allen was, by the 1950s, a nationally-celebrated poet. Her first book, “Spices of Darn,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. “Hawk,” her book-length poem released just 11 weeks before the launch of Sputnik One, was an allegory fit for spaceflight that garnered her the respect and admiration of NASA. She continued to write poetry and plays. In 1955, she took a position as librarian at Rice University in Texas, making her the first Black faculty member.
Dr. Ayers Allen moved her family to New York in 1984, where she founded a museum, organized community arts projects and funding, and was deeply involved with the local community. A decade later, she was honored by the National Council of Negro Women for her inexhaustible spirit and her progressive thinking.
Upon its closure in 1939, the Brainerd Institute transferred its students’ records to a sister-school for safekeeping. The Gillespie-Selden Institute in Cordele was established by the church in 1903 and remained open until 1956. As of 2025, the historic campus has been remodeled into affordable housing called Gillespie Gardens.
Today, the Brainerd Institute belongs to Phylicia Rashad — daughter of Vivian Ayers Allen — who purchased the single remaining building and the 12 acres surrounding it in 1999. Kumler Hall and the historic site of the Institute is the headquarters for Brainerd Institute Heritage, of which Dr. Ayers Allen was the founding director.
Brainerd Institute Heritage provides educational fine arts programming for the local community and works to preserve the history of the institution and the hardships of the people who attended it. They raised enough funds that in 2012, work to restore the structural integrity of the historic Kumler Hall building was completed. The summer of 2017 saw Brainerd Institute Heritage launch their first season of literacy programs, as well as the continued work of Vivian's “Workshops in Open Fields” program, which she developed in the 70s.
In July 2023, Rashad threw a party on the grounds of Vivian's alma mater in celebration of her 100th birthday. On the West Coast, Debbie Allen was hosting a celebration of her mother’s life, as well — she was joined by celebrities like Angela Bassett and Alexis Floyd. Upon her death two years later, at the age of 102, Dr. Vivian Ayers Allen was buried at Brainerd.
In a May 2025 interview with Angela Yee, Phylicia Rashad shared the story of her inimitable mother. She spoke of her youth in Chester, South Carolina, growing up in a small mill town and attending a school founded by the presbytery. "And in this school,” Rashad recounted, “there was this classical education administered by Black people ... my mother was always interested in music — oh, she was quite the pianist. She described herself to me once saying she was a little girl swinging high on the swing looking up at the sky and dreaming big dreams ... that’s how she grew.”
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