From Harlem to the White House and on to the world
Ron Brown dead at 54
April 4, 1996
Web posted at: 9:25 a.m. ESTFrom Correspondent Jeanne Meserve
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Commerce Department Secretary Ron Brown was on a mission to restore the war-ravaged economy of the Balkans when he died Wednesday.
The 54-year-old Brown and 32 others were aboard a U.S. Air Force T-43 twin engine plane when it crashed just 1.8 miles shy of the Dubrovnik Airport runway Wednesday. Saddened family members and colleagues say they have no doubt that Brown's mission to the former Yugoslavia was a success. (641K QuickTime movie)
Harlem was home for Ron Brown. His father managed a hotel right across the street from the famed Apollo Theater.
But Brown spent much of his life in white environments, pushing open doors that had been shut to African-Americans.
His Middlebury College roommate recalled how Brown integrated the fraternity system.
"It was before the big civil rights movements where people focused on it. So we, in looking back at it, were pleased with it (the system)," Tom Meehan said.
Brown was the first black partner at the Washington law firm of Patton, Boggs and Blow.
Brown cut his political teeth at the National Urban League. "He really put the National Urban League on the cutting edge of policies that were before Congress," said Robert McAlpine with the League.
Brown made his first foray into national politics working on the 1980 presidential campaign for Sen. Edward Kennedy.
In 1988 he was a key player in Jesse Jackson's bid for the White House.
He became the first black to lead the Democratic National Committee in 1990, but only after a long and difficult fight.
"It was a first. People were not questioning his credentials but they found other things to question. I had to talk with him once and watched the pain in his heart," NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said.
"When Clinton was nominated he had in place an organization and money for the party that other candidates ordinarily had to raise and put in place after the nominating convention. That made a tremendous difference in 1992," said political analyst Jack Germond.
Brown's reward for the victory was the post of commerce secretary.
He fought successfully for the North American Free Trade Agreement and traveled often and far on the hunt for overseas business.
"Ron Brown is the greatest trade emissary that we've ever had. His judgment and experience in opening markets overseas, building economic relationships in this changing post Cold War world were unequaled," Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said.
But Brown had his troubles as well. He was hauled before congressional committees on allegations of financial impropriety. "I am sure that I will be totally exonerated of these ridiculous and absurd charges," Brown had said.
He was cleared of one set of allegations, and another investigation is incomplete. President Clinton has stood by Brown.
At the 1992 Democratic Convention, Ron Brown reflected on where his life had taken him.
"You gave me the chance to demonstrate what my mother and father always taught me to believe: that in America, a kid from Harlem could go anywhere, do anything. Even become chairman of the greatest political party in the history of democracy." (179K AIFF sound or 179K WAV sound)
A long trip from Harlem, indeed.
Brown and his wife, Alma, have been married 33 years. They have two children.
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