Ron Brown (U.S. politician)

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Ronald Harmon Brown (August 1, 1941 – April 3, 1996), was the United States Secretary of Commerce, serving during the first term of President Bill Clinton. He was the first African American to hold this position.

Early life and political career

He was born in Washington, D.C., and was raised in Harlem, New York, in a middle-class family. He was a member of the African-American social and philanthropic organization, Jack and Jill of America, where he met many African-American friends. Brown attended Hunter College Elementary School and Rhodes Preparatory School. His father. managed the Theresa Hotel in Harlem, where he lived growing up and even best friend John R. Nailor moved into the penthouse while a student at Rhodes. Nailor was one of the other few black students who attended Rhodes Prep. As a child, he appeared in an advertisement for Pepsi-Cola, one of the first to be targeted specifically towards the African-American community.

While at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, Ron Brown became the first African-American member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, a national men's collegiate fraternity. Upon learning of Brown's membership, the National Headquarters of Sigma Phi Epsilon demanded that the chapter expel him or face closure of the chapter. The chapter declined to remove Brown and was shut down by the national organization, but was later re-opened. Brown joined the army in 1962, after graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont, and served in South Korea and Europe, the same year he married Alma Arrington. After being discharged in 1967, Brown joined the National Urban League, a leading economic equality group in the United States. Meanwhile, Brown enrolled in law school at St. John's University and obtained a degree in 1970.

Rising star in the Democratic Party

By 1976, Brown had been promoted to Deputy Executive Director for Programs and Governmental Affairs of the National Urban League. However, he resigned in 1979 to work as a deputy campaign manager for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Brown was hired in 1981 by the Washington, D.C., law firm Patton, Boggs & Blow as a lawyer and a lobbyist.

In May, 1988, Brown was named by Jesse L. Jackson to head Jackson's convention team at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. Brown was named along with several other experienced party insiders to Jackson's convention operation. By June, it was apparent that Brown was also running Jackson's campaign.

Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1989, and played an integral role in running a successful 1992 Democratic National Convention and in Bill Clinton's successful 1992 presidential run. President Clinton then appointed Brown to the position of Secretary of Commerce in 1993.

Death

On April 3, 1996, while on an official trade mission, the Air Force CT-43 (a modified Boeing 737) carrying Brown and 34 other people, including New York Times Frankfurt Bureau chief Nathaniel C. Nash, crashed in Croatia. While attempting an instrument approach to Čilipi airport, the airplane crashed into a mountainside killing everyone on board; the final Air Force investigation attributed this to pilot error and a poorly designed landing approach. There were many speculations as to the circumstances surrounding the plane crash that caused Brown's death including many government cover-up and conspiracy theories, i.e. whether the Clintons had him murdered as some conspiracy theorists conjectured about Vince Foster's suicide stemming in part from the fact that Brown was under investigation by independent counsel for corruption.

Legacy

President Clinton established the Ron Brown Award for corporate leadership and responsibility. The Conference Board administers the privately funded award. S. C. Johnson & Son, Bayer Corporation, and Johnson & Johnson received the 2006 awards.

The U.S. Department of Commerce also gives out the annual Ronald H. Brown American Innovator Award in his honor.

The largest ship in the NOAA fleet, the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown, was named in honor of his public service not long after his death.

External links

References

Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.

Bibliography

Jack Cashill, Ron Brown's Body (WND Books, 2004) ISBN 0-7852-6237-7

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