Pauline Alice Young (August 17, 1900 – June 26, 1991) was an African-American teacher, librarian, historian, lecturer, community activist, humanitarian, and individualist.
Pauline A. Young was born in West Medford, Massachusetts to James Ross Young and Mary Leila Young. Her father was a prominent caterer, and her mother was an English teacher. Young had three other siblings including a younger brother, Laurence T., and two older sisters, Ethel Corinne and Leila Ruth. When Pauline was still a child, her father deserted while the family was still living in Massachusetts. Her family moved to Wilmington, Delaware shortly after to be closer to her mother's family. There, she was raised by three "parents"—her mother, grandmother, and her aunt. Young's aunt, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, a writer, activist and poet, greatly influenced Young to follow in her footsteps, and Young considered her to be an inspiration.
Young occasionally reminisced about her childhood home, describing it as a "wayside inn and an underground railroad for visiting Negroes and white literary friends, who wouldn't go to the hotel, you know, since the hotel wouldn't admit Negroes." Among these visitors were influential activists and writers such as W. E. B. DuBois and James Weldon Johnson.
Young attended Howard High School, which was the only school for African-American students in the state of Delaware. Her mother and her aunt, the wife of author Paul Laurence Dunbar, both taught at the institution. African-American students all across Delaware were forced to bus to Wilmington because the parents of white students kept the Delaware school system segregated.
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.
Young was a devoted lifelong member of her local and the national chapter of the NAACP. Joining at the age of 12, she served nine years as the secretary and later, she became the president of the Wilmington, Delaware branch. Young was also the chair of the Delaware NAACP education committee. During her time, she coordinated NAACP organization membership campaigns in cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Wilmington. She volunteered with the United Service Organizations and with the Wilmington City Council on Youth as representative for the Wilmington Federation of Teachers. Young was described on several accounts as a "prolific and outspoken 'Letter-to-the Editor' writer", and she practiced journalism by writing book reviews for local papers such as The Baltimore Afro-American, The Wilson Bulletin for Librarians, and the Journal of Negro History. In addition, she frequently wrote to publishing companies such as Random House, Britannica and The News Journal Company advocating for Black correspondents and representation.
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.
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.
Young was also an active member of the Delaware Fellowship Commission (DFC). The DFC was organized to promote better racial, religious and nationality understanding. Pauline was a founder, and she served as the secretary and chairman of the Hospital Committee. This committee specifically fought against segregated facilities and discriminatory hiring practices and fought for equal opportunity in the training of nurses.
Young once said that she fought for civil rights and against the "oppressors--corporate management," referencing the dominant white society of her time. Young replied "Oh, goodness gracious, yes!" when asked whether she was an activist or a radical. Young's motto was, "I stay mad. And I'm damn mad at any injustice."
"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 played contract bridge, was a Dodgers fan, and as she once put it, bowled a "pretty good game."
Young had a great number of Dunbar materials in her possession:
200 letters exchanged between Alice and Paul Nelson
Scores of published and unpublished manuscripts
Clippings of Alice Dunbar-Nelson's columns in The Pittsburgh Courier, The Wilmington Advocate, and The Washington Eagle
Publications of Poet Lore, A.M.E. Church Review, Collier's, Dayton Press, Southern Workman, The Tuskegee Student, The Indianapolis World, and a few other printings