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Elaine Brown (born March 2, 1943) is an American prison activist, writer, singer, and former Black Panther Party chairwoman who is based in Oakland, California.Wheaton, Sarah (December 12, 2010), "Inmates in Georgia Prisons Use Contraband Phones to Coordinate Protest", The New York Times. Brown briefly ran for the Green Party presidential nomination in 2008. "Green Candidate for President Visits Colorado" . Metro Denver Greens
She is currently serving as the COO of Oakland & the World Enterprises, which she founded in 2014.
Upon arriving in California with little money and few contacts, Brown got work as a cocktail waitress at the strip club The Pink Pussycat. While working at the Pink Pussycat, she met Jay Richard Kennedy, a music executive who taught her about the intricacies of social justice. They became lovers. Brown learnt about political radicalisation first hand while in a relationship with Kennedy. Because of the thorough education on the Civil Rights Movement, Capitalism, and Communism which Kennedy provided to her, Brown later became involved with the Black Liberation Movement. After living together for a brief time in the Hollywood Hills Hotel, the pair parted ways.Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story (New York: Doubleday, 1992). After this pivotal relationship, Brown's involvement in politics grew and she began working for the radical newspaper Harambee. Soon after, Brown became the first representative of the Black Student Alliance at the Black Congress in California. In April 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she attended her first meeting of the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party.
In 1968, Brown was commissioned by David Hilliard, the Party chief of staff, to record her songs, a request resulting in the album Seize the Time. She eventually assumed the role of editor of the Black Panther publication in the Southern California Branch of the Party.
Brown was part of a U.S. People's Anti-Imperialist Delegation which visited China in 1970, along with fellow prominent party member Eldridge Cleaver.
In 1971, Brown became a member of the Party's Central Committee as Minister of Information, replacing the expelled Cleaver. In 1973, Brown was commissioned to record more songs by Black Panther Party founder and Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton. These songs resulted in the album Until We're Free.
As part of a directive by Newton, Brown unsuccessfully ran for the Oakland city council in 1973, getting 30 percent of the vote. She ran again in 1975, losing again with 44 percent of the vote. When Newton fled to Cuba in 1974 to avoid criminal charges, he appointed Brown to lead the Black Panther Party. Brown was the only woman to do so. She chaired the Black Panther Party from 1974 until 1977. She dealt with regular sexism because the men were angered by the thought of taking orders from a woman.
During Brown's leadership of the Black Panther Party, she focused on electoral politics and community service. In 1977, she managed Lionel Wilson’s victorious campaign to become Oakland's first black mayor. Also, Brown founded the Panther's Liberation School, which was recognized by the state of California as a model school.
Brown stepped down from chairing the Black Panther Party less than a year after Newton's return from Cuba in 1977, when Newton refused to condemn the beating of Regina Davis, an administrator of the Panther Liberation School. Other male members of the party beat Davis and broke her jaw because she reprimanded a coworker when he did not do an assignment. Newton opted for solidarity with the men. This incident was the point at which Brown could no longer tolerate the sexism and patriarchy of the Black Panther Party.Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story (New York: Doubleday, 1992), p. 444 For many, Brown's leaving was seen as a turning point for the Party. She left Oakland with her daughter, Ericka, and moved to Los Angeles – fearing for her personal safety.
Brown recorded two albums: Seize the Time (Vault, 1969) and Until We're Free (Motown Records, 1973).Norwood, Quincy T. (2003) "Respect Her Gangsta!: A Review of the Music of Elaine Brown." Proud Flesh: A New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness. Seize the Time includes "The Meeting", the anthem of the Black Panther Party.
In 2003, Brown co-founded the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform, which helps thousands of prisoners find housing after they are released on parole, facilitates transportation for family visits to prisons, helps prisoners find employment, and raises money for prisoner phone calls and gifts. In 2005, while protesting a G-8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia, Brown learned of the massive poverty in the nearby city of Brunswick, Georgia. Brown then attempted to run for mayor of Brunswick against Bryan Thompson. Running on the Green Party ticket, Brown hoped to become mayor in order to use her influence to bring the Michael Lewis case to prominence, as well as to empower blacks in Brunswick by using her elected office to create a base of economic power for the city's majority black and poor population through redistribution of the city's revenues. Though Brown was eventually disqualified from running and voting in Brunswick because she failed to establish residency in the city, her efforts brought widespread attention to Michael Lewis's case. She later became a co-founder of the Brunswick Women's Association for a People's Blueprint.
Brown has continued her prison reform advocacy by lecturing frequently at colleges and universities in the US. Since 1995, she has lectured at more than forty colleges and universities, as well as numerous conferences.
In 2010, inmates in more than seven Georgia prisons used contraband cellphones to organize a nonviolent strike for better prison conditions, Brown became their "closest adviser outside prison walls". She "helped distill the inmate complaints into a list of demands. She held a conference call... to develop a strategy with various groups, including the Georgia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Nation of Islam."
$3.75 million lawsuit against the City of Oakland
In 2017, Brown was awarded $3.75 million for damages she received when sitting Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks attacked her in an Oakland restaurant. The two had been arguing over a public housing application.Egelko, Bob (December 22, 2017) "Ex-Black Panther awarded $3.75 million after clash with Oakland councilwoman", SFGate. (Retrieved September 3, 2025).
Personal life
Brown has one daughter, Ericka Abram, fathered by Black Panther member Raymond Hewitt, but Hewitt was mostly absent from his daughter's life. At Hewitt's funeral, Elaine Brown was in attendance.
Bibliography
Discography
Studio albums
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Categories: 1943 Births, 20th-century African-american Women Writers, 20th-century African-american Writers, 20th-century American Women Writers, 21st-century American Women Politicians, Activists For African-american Civil Rights, African-american Candidates For President Of The United States, African-american Marxists, American Community Activists, American Marxists, American Women Writers, Black Panther Party, Candidates In The 2008 United States Presidential Election, Civil Rights Activists From California, Communists From California, Female Candidates For President Of The United States, Georgia Greens, Living People, Members Of The Black Panther Party, Memoirists From Pennsylvania, Philadelphia High School For Girls Alumni, Soul-jazz Musicians, Soul-jazz Vocalists, Women Marxists, Writers From Atlanta, Writers From Philadelphia, American Women Human Rights Activists
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