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“HONORING THE LIFE OF MR. EDDIE CHARLES BROWN, JR. HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND WORLD CITIZEN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E2173 on Dec. 2, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
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.
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