Former Black Panther Chair Elaine Brown Will Run for Mayor of Brunswick, GA, as a Green.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Contacts:

Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org

Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net

Elaine Brown, candidate for Mayor of Brunswick, Georgia, 912-261-9381, sistereb@bellsouth.net

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Elaine Brown, the only woman to lead the Black Panther Party, has declared her intention to run for Mayor of Brunswick, Georgia, as a member of the Green Party.

Ms. Brown will formally announce her candidacy in the nonpartisan race on May 19 -- Malcolm X's birthday -- in Brunswick. Ms. Brown ran twice for public office as a member of the Black Panther Party; a brief bio of Ms. Brown is appended below.

"I'm trying to win this seat to create a base of economic power for Brunswick's majority black and poor population through redistribution of the massive revenues of the city's powerful port," said Elaine Brown. "I intend to be the first black mayor and the first woman mayor in a city now controlled by a white, wealthy consortium whose current mayor is a lieutenant colonel in the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

"At the top of my agenda is economic and political power for the black residents of Brunswick, and forestalling a development plan that would displace Brunswick's black population," added Ms. Brown, who is profiled in the current issue (May 2005: 35th anniversary issue) of Essence magazine.

Elaine Brown gave a speech Saturday evening, April 23, to a full house at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on "From Revolution to the Ballot Box: A Discussion of Strategy for Radical Change." The event was sponsored by the Green Institute, an independent tax-exempt organization.

ELAINE BROWN: A Brief Biography

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Elaine Brown is a former leading member of the Black Panther Party and author of A Taste of Power and The Condemnation of Little B.

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A Taste of Power, Brown's memoir, is slated for film production by Suzanne de Passe, Emmy-award winning president of de Passe Entertainment.

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In 1996, after living six years in France, Brown moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she established the nonprofit education corporation Fields of Flowers to build a comprehensive model education center for black and other poor children.

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Brown is Executive Director of the Michael Lewis Legal Defense Committee, organized to support the legal appeal of Lewis ("Little B"), who, arrested at the age of 13 for a murder he did not commit, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison (1997).

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Brown is a co-founder and Board member of the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform, an organization primarily composed of former prisoners and family members and friends of prisoners, the goals of which are to repeal the harsh criminal laws of the U.S., advocate for human rights for prisoners, and provide re-entry programs for former prisoners.

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In addition, Brown is a member of the Geechee Council of Georgia; the Brunswick NAACP; Vice President of The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation; and a partner in Seize the Time, Inc.

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Brown lectures at colleges and universities throughout the country on New Age Racism and realization of the vision of eliminating racism, gender oppression and class disparity toward an inclusive and egalitarian world society.

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Brown, a fluent French speaker, has traveled extensively throughout the world, both on behalf of the Black Panther Party and independently, from China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Algeria to France, Italy, Russia, Argentina, Uruguay, and elsewhere.

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Brown, who studied classical piano for years and recorded two albums of her original songs, one for Motown records, has attended Temple University, UCLA, Mills College, and Southwestern University School of Law.

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The mother of one adult daughter, Brown grew up in the ghettos of North Philadelphia. Brown's papers have been acquired by Emory University.

http://gp.org/press/pr_2005_04_26.html

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