Byrd Brown

Byrd Rowlett Brown (July 26, 1929 – May 3, 2001) was an activist, lawyer, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement.

He is best known for improving life for Pittsburgh's African Americans and the poor through his long terms as president of the Pittsburgh Branch of the NAACP and his legal and civil work.

He led a march on Duquesne Light to protest unfair hiring practices.

This work resulted in the creation of training programs for African-Americans so that they could gain admission into trade unions.

Byrd Brown used his education to promote equality rather than to gain wealth.

"Pro bono was his middle name," said former NAACP president Harvey Adams.

Byrd Rowlett Brown was born on July 26, 1929, though sources dispute his actual birthday.

He graduated from Schenley High School in 1947, and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) and a Juris Doctor (JD) from Yale Law School in 1955.

His Yale contemporaries included George H. W. Bush, William F. Buckley, and Pat Robertson.

Brown served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956.

Byrd Brown was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and contemporary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mayor Tom Murphy of Pittsburgh said, "Byrd Brown was an African-American who stood in the front lines of the civil rights movement and faced down enormous hatred and prejudice. It takes a rare kind of courage to be able to do that."

Brown was the only child of the prominent Wilhelmina Byrd Brown, a civil rights activist, and Homer S. Brown, Allegheny County's first black judge, and the founder and first president of the Pittsburgh NAACP, who served as president for 24 years, 1958–71.

Byrd's mother, Wilhelmina Byrd Brown, dedicated 50 years of her life to public service.

His grandfather, the Reverend William Roderick Brown, was a well-known Pittsburgh North Side preacher.

Byrd's father, Homer Brown, was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature and wrote the Pennsylvania state Fair Employment Practices Act.

Homor Brown created one of the first pieces of legislation in Pennsylvania that prohibited discrimination in public places.

At that time, nine out of ten firms discriminated against race, religion, or national origin in the hiring of workers.

Byrd Brown was raised in the affluent neighborhood called Sugar Top, in the Hill District of Pittsburgh.

This district historically served as the center of African-American life in Pittsburgh in Allegheny County.

The quality of life in the Hill and other Pittsburgh neighborhoods has been improved by redevelopment.

But this progress often has been at the expense of African-Americans, forced out of their neighborhoods by inflating property values, redlining and other practices that promote gentrification.

Brown was the first black student to start as quarterback for his high school football team.

Brown was president of the Pittsburgh NAACP from 1958 to 1971.

Brown donated regularly and generously to a non-profit organization called Hand in Hand that gave college scholarships.

In the 1960s Brown helped to organize rallies at Forbes Field where King spoke.

City Councilman Sala Udin recalled the time while they were driving back to Pittsburgh from Mississippi in the 1960s the police stopped him and fellow civil rights workers.

Officers arrested Udin and the others after they searched their car and found a pistol.

In 1963 he helped lead a train convoy to the March on Washington.

In 1967 Brown organized and led a downtown march of 5,000 people at the company Duquesne Light to seek better jobs and protesting unfair hiring practices for African Americans.

After the march, Duquesne Light began hiring African American workers.

In 1968, Brown acted as co-chairman of the Spring Mobilization for Peace.

In 1969 he became the principal speaker at Moratorium Day rally at Point Park in Pittsburgh.

Brown also organized marches against Mine Safety Appliances, Gimbels, Kaufmann's, Hornes, the Pittsburgh Board of Education, Sears Roebuck, and the University of Pittsburgh.

He picketed construction sites to push for more black jobs in construction.

During one violent police confrontation, Brown suffered beatings and was sprayed with mace.

Thanks to the efforts of Brown and other civil rights activists, the Pittsburgh Plan was produced.

This plan was considered a national model for training blacks for construction jobs.

Byrd helped organize the Black Monday demonstration to U.S. Steel corporation's new building to protest discrimination in construction.

He ran for Congress in 1970 and mayor of Pittsburgh in 1989.

Reverend J. Van Alfred Winsett III noted that despite struggling with racism, Brown "carried himself with dignity, never with hatred."