Brown to be the Keynote Speaker at Student-Organized Leadership Conference

Elaine Brown, chairman of the Black Panther Party in the 1970s and more recently author and activist in organizations aimed at improving the lives of poor children, will be the keynote speaker at a student-organized leadership conference to be held at Smith College on Saturday, October 16. Brown's talk, which will be at 5 p.m. in Wright Hall Auditorium, will be free and open to the public.

The first woman to head a paramilitary organization in this country, Brown ran for public office and traveled to North Korea, Vietnam, China, Russia and Cuba, experiences she wrote about in her memoir, "A Taste of Power," published by Pantheon in 1993.

Currently, Brown lives in Atlanta where she is working on her next book, "New Age Racism and the Condemnation of 'Little B.'" "Little B," whose real name is Michael Lewis, is serving a life sentence after being convicted at the age of 14 of a murder he vows he did not commit.

As an officer of "Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice," Brown is an advocate for Michael and other children like him. She has also formed a nonprofit educational corporation, "Fields of Flowers, Inc.," to create a massive education center in Atlanta, which she hopes will serve as a model for communities around the country.

Brown was raised by her factory-worker mother. She was educated at prestigious and mostly white public schools. A student of classical music for many years, she studied at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, has recorded two albums of original songs for Motown Records and continues to write songs.

October 1, 1999