Brown, Ron
Brown, Ron
(Ronald Harmon Brown), 1941–96, American politician, b. Washington, D.C. Raised in New York City's Harlem, he attended Middlebury College (grad. 1962) and St. John's Law School (grad. 1970). A lifelong Democrat, he worked at the National Urban LeagueUrban League, National,voluntary nonpartisan community service agency, founded in 1910, whose goal is to help end racial segregation and discrimination in the United States, especially toward African Americans, and to help economically and socially disadvantaged groups to share
..... Click the link for more information. (1966–78) before becoming a top aide to Senator Edward KennedyKennedy, Ted
(Edward Moore Kennedy), 1932–2009, U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1962–2009), b. Boston, Mass., youngest son of Joseph P. Kennedy and the last survivor of brothers Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy.
..... Click the link for more information. (1979–81). After a stint as a partner in a private law and lobbying firm in Washington (1985–88), he managed the presidential bid of Jesse JacksonJackson, Jesse Louis,
1941–, African-American political leader, clergyman, and civil-rights activist, b. Greenville, S.C. Raised in poverty, he attended the Chicago Theological Seminary (1963–65) and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968.
..... Click the link for more information. (1988) and was the first African American to serve as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (1989–92), where he successfully charted a centrist course. A skilled political operative and deal maker with an engagingly suave personal style, Brown had an ideology that mixed liberal concerns with capitalist savvy and was a classic Washington insider. He played a key role in unifying Democrats behind the presidential candidacy of Bill ClintonClinton, Bill
(William Jefferson Clinton), 1946–, 42d President of the United States (1993–2001), b. Hope, Ark. His father died before he was born, and he was originally named William Jefferson Blythe 4th, but after his mother remarried, he assumed the surname of his
..... Click the link for more information. (1992) and made an effective secretary of commerce (1993–96) in Clinton's administration. Brown was killed in an airplane crash while on a trade mission to Croatia.
Bibliography
See biography by S. A. Holmes (2000).