Honoring the legacy and impact of America's civil rights movement.

Elaine Brown

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Elaine Brown is accustomed to breaking new ground and overcoming adversity is a challenge she’d conquered long before she made history in the 1970s as the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party. Of the many Black-led organizations advocating for the civil and human rights of Black Americans at the time, “none had women in leadership except the Black Panther Party,” asserts Brown, 77. Fortunately, Brown was up for the challenge ○ and the many difficulties her controversial appointment would bring into her life. Her well-earned reputation as a brilliant, bold, unyielding supporter of the liberation of Black people in America and beyond lives on today, as further evidenced by the more than five decades she has lent her support ○ and her voice ○ to speaking out on issues of equality and justice. “We were there to challenge the entire structure and scheme,” says Brown, of the Panthers’ efforts to make American society more equitable. “And so it is that [which] gave me, and gives me, meaning and purpose today.” Promoting self-determination and an end to police brutality facing Black Americans ○ both of which topped the Black Panther Party’s agenda from its inception in 1966 ○ are the core of Brown’s activism.