Mildred Brown
Encyclopedia
Mildred Brown was an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 journalist, newspaper publisher, and leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska
Civil rights movement in Omaha, Nebraska
The Civil rights movement in Omaha, Nebraska has roots that extend back until at least 1912. With a history of racial tension that starts before the founding of the city, Omaha has been the home of numerous overt efforts related to securing civil rights for African Americans since at least the...

. Part of the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...

, she came from Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 via Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 and Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...

. In Omaha, she and her husband founded and ran the Omaha Star
Omaha Star
The Omaha Star is a newspaper founded in 1938 in North Omaha, Nebraska by Mildred Brown and her husband S. Edward Gilbert. Housed in the historic Omaha Star building in the Near North Side neighborhood, today the Omaha Star is the only remaining African-American newspaper in Omaha and the only one...

, a newspaper of the African-American community.

After 1945, Brown continued to run alone what was the only African-American newspaper in Omaha. It became the only newspaper of the African-American community in the state. She used its influence for education, community building, supporting the national civil rights movement and opening up jobs for blacks. In the 1960s President Lyndon Johnson appointed her as a goodwill ambassador to East Germany.

Brown was the first African American and one of only three women inducted into the Omaha Business Hall of Fame. She also has been posthumously inducted into the Nebraska Journalism Hall of Fame (2007) and the newly instituted Omaha Press Club Journalism of Excellence Hall of Fame (2008).

Early life and family

Mildred Brown was born in Bessemer, Alabama
Bessemer, Alabama
Bessemer is a city outside of Birmingham in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States eight miles west of Hoover. The population was 29,672 at the 2000 Census, but by the 2009 U.S...

 in 1915 to Rev. and Mrs. Bennie J. Brown, a prominent African-American family. Her mother was a teacher. They encouraged her education. In 1931 Brown graduated from Miles College
Miles College
Miles College is a historically black college founded in 1898. It is located in Fairfield, Alabama, which is six miles west of Birmingham, Alabama. It is a private liberal arts institution of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church...

 (then called Miles Memorial Teachers College), an historically black college (HBCU) founded in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

 by the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is a historically black denomination within the broader context of Methodism. The group was organized in 1870 when several black ministers, with the full support of their white counterparts in the former Methodist Episcopal Church, South, met to form an...

 (CME Church).

Brown worked as a teacher in Birmingham, where she met and married S. Edward Gilbert, a pharmacy graduate of Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

. They moved to Chicago, where Brown studied at Chicago Normal College, and then to Des Moines, where she took journalism at Drake University
Drake University
Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and pharmacy. Today, Drake is one of the twenty-five oldest law schools in the country....

. Brown started in journalism and started selling ads and writing news at the Silent Messenger in Sioux City, Iowa, where Gilbert was editor.

At the invitation of a friend who invited them to his paper, in 1937 they moved to Omaha. Initially Brown worked as advertising manager.

Career

In 1938 the couple founded the Omaha Star; by 1945 it was the only remaining African-American newspaper in Omaha and the largest in the state. Brown was owner and publisher until her death in 1989. Still operating, it has become the longest-running newspaper in the city's history and is the only black paper printed in the state.

Brown and Gilbert divorced in 1943, with Brown taking charge of the newspaper's operations as the "Advertising and General Manager". Brown used the newspaper as a way of expanding opportunities for the African-American community, especially for jobs. She hired young black men and provided scholarships for education. She refused to accept advertising from businesses that discriminated against blacks in hiring and also led customer boycotts of them to achieve change. Seeing the paper as a center of community journalism, she promoted positive news about accomplishments of individuals and groups.

In the late 1940s, Brown became involved with Omaha's DePorres Club
DePorres Club
The DePorres Club was an early pioneer organization in the Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska, whose "goals and tactics foreshadowed the efforts of civil rights activists throughout the nation in the 1960s." The club was an affiliate of CORE.-History:...

, a group of high school students and Creighton University
Creighton University
Creighton University is a private, coeducational, Jesuit, Roman Catholic university located in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the school is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. The university is accredited by...

 students fighting against racial discrimination in Omaha. They led a sit-in at a cafe near the courthouse. After Creighton kicked the group off campus for too much activism, Brown volunteered the Star's office for use by the club. She also provided the group with her informal guidance and support.

Restructuring of industry and loss of jobs produced hard years in Omaha. Brown's balanced coverage of the riots of the 1960s earned commendation from President Johnson. She continued her activism to persuade businesses to make more opportunities open to blacks.

In the 1970s, Brown joined the Citizens Co-Ordinating Committee for Civil Liberties, better known as the 4CL. Created by prominent black church leaders, the group continued efforts for broader grassroots employment. They also added the issues of housing, civil rights, and social justice. As a well-known journalist and publisher, Brown had a wide circle of friends, who invited her on many travels for business, conventions, social events, and meetings with other publishers of black and white papers. Because of her prominent position in Nebraska's largest city, she also knew a wide array of politicians and national leaders.

Brown lived in an apartment in the Omaha Star building in the North Omaha neighborhood from 1938 to her death in 1989. Her niece Marguerita Washington has continued to publish the newspaper.

Honors

  • Brown was the first African American and one of only three women inducted into the Omaha Business Hall of Fame.

  • In the 1960s President Johnson commended Brown for her balanced coverage of civil rights efforts and riots, and appointed her as a goodwill ambassador to travel to East Germany.

  • The National Newspaper Publishers Association, with 200 member owners of black newspapers, one year recognized the Omaha Star as having the "Best Church Page".

  • In 2007 the Omaha Star
    Omaha Star
    The Omaha Star is a newspaper founded in 1938 in North Omaha, Nebraska by Mildred Brown and her husband S. Edward Gilbert. Housed in the historic Omaha Star building in the Near North Side neighborhood, today the Omaha Star is the only remaining African-American newspaper in Omaha and the only one...

     Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
    National Register of Historic Places
    The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

     because of the newspaper's significance in the history of Omaha, journalism, and the civil rights movement.

  • In 2007 Mildred Brown was posthumously inducted into the Nebraska Journalism Hall of Fame.

  • May 2008 - Mildred Brown was posthumously inducted into the first class of the Omaha Press Club Journalists of Excellence Hall of Fame.

  • The Mildred Brown Memorial Strolling Park was dedicated in her honor in May 2008 next to the Omaha Star building.

  • Her niece Dr. Marguerita Washington, now the owner and publisher of the weekly paper, has founded the non-profit Mildred D. Brown Study Center to provide scholarships for journalism students and encourage students to explore communication fields.

See also

  • Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska
    Civil rights movement in Omaha, Nebraska
    The Civil rights movement in Omaha, Nebraska has roots that extend back until at least 1912. With a history of racial tension that starts before the founding of the city, Omaha has been the home of numerous overt efforts related to securing civil rights for African Americans since at least the...

  • History of North Omaha, Nebraska
    History of North Omaha, Nebraska
    The history of North Omaha, Nebraska includes wildcat banks, ethnic enclaves, race riots and social change spanning over 200 years. With a recorded history that pre-dates the rest of the city, North Omaha has roots back to 1812 with the founding of Fort Lisa...


External links

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