Elaine Brown

activist, writer

Elaine Brown became, in 1974, the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party. Today, as an activist, writer and popular lecturer, she promotes the vision of an inclusive and egalitarian society, focusing on resolving problems of race, gender oppression and class disparity in the United States. In her autobiographical memoir, *A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story*, Brown recounts her life from the ghettos of North Philadelphia to her leadership in one of the most important and militant civil rights groups in U. S. history. The book has been optioned by HBO for its planned six-part series, *The Black Panthers*. Brown is also author of *New Age Racism* and *the Condemnation of Little B* (2002), the story of Michael Little B Lewis. She is a Board member of the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform, a board member of Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice, and Vice-President of The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation. In 2005, Brown ran for mayor of Brunswick, Georgia. Her platform would have created a base of economic power for the city's majority African American and poor population, advocating redistribution of the massive revenues of the city's powerful port. Presently, Brown is a member of the Geechee Council of Georgia and a founder of the Brunswick Women's Association for Community Improvement.