William Washington Browne (October 20, 1849 – December 21, 1897) was an African American fraternal society leader, temperance worker, and minister.

Ben Browne was born on October 20, 1849, into slavery on a Georgia plantation of Benjamin Pryor in Habersham County.

[5] When slave owners started coming to the camp looking for runaways, Browne took employment with a Jewish family in town.

[4] He enlisted and the U.S. Army when he was fifteen years old and was assigned to the 18th United States Colored Infantry Regiment at St. Louis, reaching the rank of sergeant major.

[5] In Georgia, he converted and studied the ministry at an African Methodist Episcopal Church School in Atlanta (later called the Gammon Theological Seminary).

[4][6] Browne became an outspoken proponent of the temperance movement and against the Ku Klux Klan, making speeches in Alabama and Georgia in the early 1870s.

[1][4][6] He sought the assistance of the Independent Order of Good Templars, a fraternal organization which was part of the temperance movement.

[2] In late December 1880, Browne moved to Richmond, Virginia, having accepted a position with the Leigh Street Methodist Episcopal Church.

[1] On January 3, 1881, he was asked to spearhead a new branch of the temperece movement in Virginia, named the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers.

[2] Under his leadership, the fraternal society revolutionized insurance for Blacks in Richmond and beyond, not only paying burial costs but also providing support for the survivors.

[2] Browne still believe that African Americans needed money above all else and sought to turn the organization into an fair-wage employe for Black men and women.

[3] Under his guidance, the Grand Fountain grew into an organization that managed a bank, published a newspaper entitled the Reformer, owned a three-story office building, and operated a farm, a 150-room hotel, a concert hall, a 634 acre retirement home for Blacks.

[2] Initially, the bank operated from Browne's home but was later housed in True Reformers Hall, a three-story office building.

[9] At one point, the Grand Fountain was the largest Black fraternal society and black-owned business in the United States.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.

[3] Browne changed the Grand Fountain's monthly Reformer into a weekly newspaper, hoping to take over the market from Mitchell's Richmond Planet.

[3] 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.