[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 184 (Friday, December 2, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2173]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING THE LIFE OF MR. EDDIE CHARLES BROWN, JR. HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST 
                           AND WORLD CITIZEN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, December 2, 2011

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize 
Mr. Eddie Charles Brown Jr., a consummate organizer, community activist 
and civil rights advocate. Mr. Eddie Brown Jr. began working in the 
areas of human and civil rights in the 1960s. Often working on behalf 
of others, Mr. Brown devoted his life to making a difference in 
society.
  A native of Louisiana, Eddie Brown Jr. was born on August 19, 1941, 
in New Orleans and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Thelma Warren 
and Eddie Charles Brown, Sr. He is survived by his wife, Valinda, and 
three sons.
  Mr. Brown's historical efforts to fight segregation and all forms of 
oppression as well as to empower Black people started in 1960 as a 
student at Louisiana's Southern University. He and 16 other classmates 
confronted the University and staged a sit-in to protest the prevalent 
racial segregation that existed in Louisiana. After he and the others 
were arrested, expelled and banned from enrolling in any university in 
Louisiana, Eddie Brown's life would be defined by his fight for 
justice, equality and human dignity on behalf of politically and socio-
economically oppressed communities.
  The expulsion from Southern University led Mr. Brown to Howard 
University in Washington, D.C. in 1961, where he landed on the front 
line of the Civil Rights Movement. At Howard University, Mr. Brown 
became a leader and organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating 
Committee (SNCC). He fought to win constitutional rights for Blacks and 
all disenfranchised people.
  Mr. Brown never held a job that was not directly concerned with human 
advancement. Highly regarded in white political and philanthropic 
circles for a selfless incorruptibility, he helped bridge the gap 
between both communities and was able to direct very significant 
financial resources into poor black communities.
  As a staffer at the Citizen's Crusade Against Poverty in Washington, 
D.C., in 1965, Mr. Brown developed information networks among 
community-based organizations to support anti-poverty legislation. In 
1967, he organized efforts to improve the political and economic 
conditions of Blacks in the Mississippi Delta as the Executive Director 
and founder of the Mississippi Action for Community Education (MACE) 
and The Delta Foundation in Greenville, Mississippi. At MACE, he 
developed community-based enterprises producing Fine Vines blue jeans 
and establishing catfish farms in the Delta. In 1974, Mr. Brown raised 
funds and helped organize the Sixth Pan African Congress held at the 
University of Tanzania with delegates representing 52 independent 
states and/or liberation movements in Africa, the Caribbean, and other 
people of African descent.
  As Executive Director of the New Orleans Area Development Project in 
1976, he organized advocacy groups to work for reform by organizing 
communities to fight police brutality and creating parent-teacher 
committees for education reform. Mr. Brown went on to serve as 
President and CEO of the Southern Agriculture Corporation in the 1980s 
where he worked to organize and gain capital funding for small Black 
southern farmers. In the 1990s as Executive Director of the Voter 
Education Project in Atlanta, he continued his tireless efforts to 
register Blacks and poor people to vote and to fight legislation 
restricting poor and disenfranchised people of all color from voting.
  From the 1990s through 2006, Mr. Brown shifted his focus to nations 
outside the United States. As a senior consultant to the National 
Democratic Institute, Mr. Brown designed and implemented civic and 
voter education programs to prepare for national elections in Ethiopia, 
Namibia, Zambia, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. As an international election 
observer for The Jimmy Carter Center, Eddie worked in Ghana, Zambia and 
The Dominican Republic. As a human rights activist in corporate board 
rooms, Eddie served on the World Council of Churches and Emergency Fund 
for Southern Africa raising funds for humanitarian relief; at the 
Center for National Security Studies monitoring American defense 
policies and budgets; and with the American Friends Service Committee, 
United States Department of Agriculture Citizens Advisory Committee 
Equal Opportunity and Atlanta Council for International Cooperation.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in honoring the life 
and legacy of Mr. Eddie Charles Brown Jr., a global citizen and 
activist who found his lifework in the work that he loved.

                          ____________________