Willie Gertrude Brown, first director of the Phyllis Wheatley settlement house, ran it by and for her follow Black Americans, and stared down cops on multiple occasions and won.
The Phyllis Wheatley House was a resource hub for the Black community and women in Minneapolis. Brown helped organize childcare, housing and employment resources during the 1930s where social resources for Black Minneapolis residents were almost non-existent. Brown and the Wheatley House appointed women as the heads of the organization and women founded several community organizations.
From this stronghold of community and political action, Brown hosted meetings for the Pullman Porters union efforts. She also knew that the Wheatley House would shelter Black people who were being threatened and harassed by the police. Brown would stand by the front door with her rifle, willing to protect her community from police at any cost.
One anecdote, recounted by her associate head resident at Phyllis Wheatley House:
Whenever some crime or petty crime could be - was committed the police had a way of driving up to the pool halls and emptying them, taking down twenty or thirty Negroes. And there was one case - some social worker became involved. I don’t know whether it was a rape case, but feeling ran very high and the police were honeycombing the area to find him and the - it had gotten so tense that there was a threat that he would be killed. And Miss Brown was a very strong person and she sent out the word that if he - if he was in danger of his life he could come to Phyllis Wheatley House and she would assure him safety there. One thing that we were rather amused at… somebody in the sheriff’s department had heard of her prowess as a marksman. She used to go out hunting, hunting ducks and she loved to go out on a weekend jaunt and so they probably gave her a little more credit than she was due, but it - you had the impression that she would be sitting at the top of the steps when you opened that front door with a rifle waiting for the authorities to come and try to take someone out of Phyllis Wheatley House. I think they would have had trouble though. She was from the South and she was militant. One thing that happened at Phyllis Wheatley House which I think describes her. These were the days when Philip Randolph was organizing the pullman porters and a meeting had been arranged there. Someone on the community fund called up and asked her if it was true that there was going to be a meeting of the pullman - Randolph’s pullman porters. She said yes. And he said, “Do you think that’s wise since the pullman company makes a very generous contribution to the United Fund?” Or Community Fund, whichever it was called. And so she said that she had given permission and the meeting would be held. So…
