A tribute to my mentor Dr. Alexander Brown, civil rights activist, educator, and a devoted Phi Beta
Bro. Dr. Alexander Brown was a tenth grader in a Birmingham, Alabama public high school when he became embroiled over fifty (50) years ago in what turned out to be one the most important occurrences of the American Twentieth century; The Children’s March.
Immediately after the successful conclusion of the Birmingham campaign, Dr. Brown became the first recruit of Dr. Bernard Lafayette to the Selma campaign; then considered the most dangerous organizing situation in the South. Dr. Brown spent most of the summer and fall of 1963, as well as the winter-spring of 1964, in Selma, attending high school one or two days a week.
Dr. Brown found himself in daily contact with S.N.C.C. (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee) organizers, attending daily impromptu discussions and seminars and conversing with people like Dick Gregory and Amelia Boynton Robinson at whose house he and Lafayette (almost all of the visitors to Selma on behalf of civil rights) regularly stayed. Dr. Brown then made a decision that, “I’m going to do whatever Dr. King says we should do”, something that he has continued to from that time until now.
Dr. Brown received a B.S. degree from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta) in 1969, a Master’s degree in education from Virginia State University. Dr. Brown was initiated in the Xi Sigma chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. in 1975 at Indiana University where he obtained his doctorate in education in 1980.
With specialties in the area of African-American studies and counseling, Dr. Brown was a professor of counseling at the graduate school at Prairie View A&M University. He was also assistant director for African-American studies at the University of Houston from 1989 thru 1993. Additionally, He was a University Academic Advisor and Coordinator of academic support for Student Athletes from 1993-2005.
I am humbled to have met Dr. Brown for the first time during my chapter's (Eta Rho Sigma) scholarship banquet that was held in Houston, TX at the Hilton Hotel on March 24th, 2014 during our centennial year of celebrating the fraternity's one hundred year anniversary. From that inception, he has served as my mentor ever since.
Dr. Brown was awarded a Proclamation from the City of Houston designated as Alexander Brown Day for his participation in the Civil Rights Movement and Bloody Sunday on February 10th, 2015.
Today, Dr. Brown is most proud of his role as an assistant director of the Sunday school at the Brentwood Baptist Church. He is also the civil rights guide for the Brentwood Youth Department. Dr. Brown is a proud member of the Eta Rho Sigma chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc.
