Elaine Brown
Elaine Brown | |
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Black Power movement | |
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Website | http://www.elainebrown.org |
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Elaine Brown (born March 2, 1943) is an American prison activist, writer, singer, and former
She is currently serving as the COO of Oakland & the World Enterprises, which she founded in 2014.[3]
Early life
Elaine Brown grew up in the inner city of North Philadelphia with her mother Dorothy Clark and an absent father. Despite being in desperate poverty, Brown's mother worked hard to provide for Elaine. She was enrolled in private schooling, took music lessons, and had nice clothing. During her childhood, she studied classical piano and ballet for many years at a predominantly white experimental elementary school. As a young Black woman, Elaine had very few African-American friends and spent most of her time with white people. After graduating from Philadelphia High School for Girls, a public preparatory school for gifted young women, she studied at Temple University for less than a semester. She withdrew from Temple because of her desire to work in the music industry. Brown moved to Los Angeles, California, to become a professional songwriter. While in Los Angeles, Brown enrolled in the
Upon arriving in California with little money and few contacts, Brown got work as a cocktail waitress at the strip club The Pink Pussycat. While working at the Pink Pussycat, she met
Involvement with the Black Panther Party
In 1968, Brown joined the Black Panther Party as a rank-and-file member, studying revolutionary literature, and selling Black Panther Party newspapers. She soon helped the party set up its first Free Breakfast for Children program in Los Angeles, as well as the Party's initial Free Busing to Prisons Program and Free Legal Aid Program.[9]
In 1968, Brown was commissioned by David Hilliard, the Party chief of staff, to record her songs, a request resulting in the album Seize the Time. She eventually assumed the role of editor of the Black Panther publication in the Southern California Branch of the Party.
Brown was part of a U.S. People's Anti-Imperialist Delegation which visited China in 1970, along with fellow prominent party member Eldridge Cleaver.[10]: 39
In 1971, Brown became a member of the Party's Central Committee as Minister of Information, replacing the expelled Cleaver. In 1973, Brown was commissioned to record more songs by Black Panther Party founder and Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton. These songs resulted in the album Until We're Free.
As part of a directive by Newton, Brown unsuccessfully ran for the Oakland city council in 1973, getting 30 percent of the vote. She ran again in 1975, losing again with 44 percent of the vote.[8] When Newton fled to Cuba in 1974 to avoid criminal charges, he appointed Brown to lead the Black Panther Party. Brown was the only woman to do so. She chaired the Black Panther Party from 1974 until 1977. She dealt with regular sexism because the men were angered by the thought of taking orders from a woman.
A woman in the
Black Power movement was considered, at best, irrelevant. A woman asserting herself was a pariah. If a black woman assumed a role of leadership, she was said to be eroding black manhood, to be hindering the progress of the black race. She was an enemy of the black people.... I knew I would have to muster something mighty to manage the Black Panther Party.
During Brown's leadership of the Black Panther Party, she focused on electoral politics and community service. In 1977, she managed Lionel Wilson’s victorious campaign to become Oakland’s first black mayor.[9] Also, Brown founded the Panther's Liberation School, which was recognized by the state of California as a model school.[13]
Brown stepped down from chairing the Black Panther Party less than a year after Newton’s return from Cuba in 1977, when Newton refused to condemn the beating of
Brown recorded two
Later activism
After leaving the Black Panther Party, also in order to raise her daughter Ericka, Brown worked on her memoir,
In 2003, Brown co-founded the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform, which helps thousands of prisoners find housing after they are released on parole, facilitates transportation for family visits to prisons, helps prisoners find employment, and raises money for prisoner phone calls and gifts.[9] In 2005, while protesting a
Brown has continued her prison reform advocacy by lecturing frequently at colleges and universities in the US. Since 1995, she has lectured at more than forty colleges and universities, as well as numerous conferences.[9]
2007 Green Party role
In March 2007, Brown announced her bid to be the 2008 Green Party presidential nominee. Brown felt that a campaign was necessary to promote the interests of those not represented by the major political parties, especially the interests of women under 30 and African Americans. Her platform focused on the needs of working-class families, promoting living wages for all, free health care, more funding for public education, more affordable housing, removal of troops from Iraq, improving the environment, and promoting equality.[21] Brown intended on using her campaign to bring many minorities to the Green Party in the hope that it would better represent a revolutionary force for social justice. In late 2007, she resigned from the Green Party, as she found that the Party remained dominated by whites who had “no intention of using the ballot to actualize real social progress, and will aggressively repel attempts to do so.”[22]
In 2010, inmates in more than seven Georgia prisons used contraband cellphones to organize a nonviolent
Personal life
Brown has one daughter, Ericka Abram,[23] fathered by Black Panther member Raymond Hewitt,[24] but Hewitt was mostly absent from his daughter's life. At Hewitt's funeral, Elaine Brown was in attendance.[25]
Bibliography
- Brown, Elaine. The Condemnation of Little B: New Age Racism in America (Boston: Beacon, 2002).
- Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (New York: Doubleday, 1992).
References
- ^ a b c Wheaton, Sarah (December 12, 2010), "Inmates in Georgia Prisons Use Contraband Phones to Coordinate Protest", The New York Times.
- ^ "Green Candidate for President Visits Colorado" Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. Metro Denver Greens
- ^ "About". OAW WEBSITE. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
- ^ Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (New York: Doubleday, 1992), pp. 70-72.
- ^ "Elaine Brown (March 2, 1943)". National Archives. 2016-08-25. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ^ Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (New York: Doubleday, 1992).
- S2CID 147172238.
- ^ a b "Brown, Elaine (1943- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". The Black Past. 24 November 2007. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ a b c d "More About Elaine". Elaine Brown. Archived from the original on 2010-11-28. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ISBN 9781501774157.
- ^ Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (New York: Doubleday, 1992), p. 357
- ^ Spencer, Robyn C. "ENGENDERING THE BLACK FREEDOM STRUGGLE: Revolutionary Black Womanhood and the Black Panther Party in the Bay Area, California." Journal of Women's History, vol. 20, no. 1, 2008, pp. 90-113.
- ^ "A Complete Idiot's Guide to U.S. And Russian Meddling". 2 March 2019.
- ^ "Voices of Color—Invisible Women: Sexism in the Black Panther Party - www.socialism.com". 23 March 2023.
- ^ Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (New York: Doubleday, 1992), p. 444
- OCLC 1005077774.
- ^ Norwood, Quincy T. (2003) "Respect Her Gangsta!: A Review of the Music of Elaine Brown." Archived 2007-08-22 at the Wayback Machine Proud Flesh: A New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness.
- ^ "Seize the Time: Elaine Brown." Seize the Time: Women in Power Seminars.
- ^ "The Condemnation of Little B." Fleming, Robert, Black Issues Book Review, 15220524, May/Jun2002, Vol. 4, Issue 3.
- ^ "Elaine Brown | Home Page". Archived from the original on 2010-11-28. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ "Pan-African News Wire: Former Panther Leader Elaine Brown Seeks Green Party Presidential Nomination For 2008". Panafricannews.blogspot.com. 2007-03-09. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ Morris, Bob (2007-12-31). "Elaine Brown withdraws from Green Party presidential race | Politics in the Zeros". Polizeros.com. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ISBN 978-1-56976-594-4.
- ^ Brown, Elaine (1992). "'A Taste of Power': The Woman Who Led the Black Panther Party". longreads.com. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
- ^ "Ex-Panthers Reunite at Leader's Funeral". Los Angeles Times. 1988-03-11. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
External links
- Elaine Brown, Brown's website.
- "Black Panther Party long victimized by campaign of lies", an article by Brown in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 25, 2000.
- Elaine Brown on Georgia Prison Strike: "Repression Breeds Resistance" - video interview by Democracy Now!
- Elaine Brown Papers at Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library, Emory University