biography
| name: |
Brown, Ron(ald Harmon)
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1941–96)
|
| biography:
| Lawyer and cabinet officer, born in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He grew up in Harlem, studied at Middlebury College (1962), and served with the US Army (1962–6), later earning a law degree at St John's University School of Law (1970). While working for the National Urban League (NUL) in New York, he was elected district leader of the Democratic Party in Mount Vernon, NY (1971). He was with the Washington, DC office of the NUL (1973–9), then held a series of positions under Senator Edward Kennedy, and worked for the Democratic National Committee (1981–5). In 1981 he joined the Washington, DC law firm of Patton, Boggs & Blow, thereby becoming its first African-American partner, and for several years he made his name as a corporate lobbyist. By 1988 he was serving as a strategist to Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign, and his role as a unifier at the Democratic Convention led to his being chosen in 1989 to head the Democratic National Committee. His successful handling of the Democratic Party's own factions and of Bill Clinton's 1991 campaign led to his appointment as secretary of commerce in 1993. He was killed in an aeroplane crash in Croatia. |
|
|
