Brown, Roscoe, Jr.

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Brown, Roscoe, Jr.

March 9, 1922

Roscoe Conkling Brown Jr., educator, was born in Washington, D.C. He attended Dunbar High School, a segregated academic high school in Washington also attended by such significant black figures as William Hastie, Charles Drew, and his father, Roscoe Conkling Brown Sr. (who was to become head of the National Negro Health Movement in Roosevelt's Black Cabinet). After graduating from Dunbar in 1939, the younger Brown went to Springfield College in Massachusetts, graduating as valedictorian in 1943.

That year, Brown enlisted in the Army Air Force. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in March 1944, and in July joined the 100th Fighter Squadron in Italy. From July 1944 to May 1945 he flew sixty-eight combat missions and was credited with one of the first downings of a German jet. Near the end of the war, Brown was promoted to captain and served as squadron commander of the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group. For his achievements in combat he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with eight oakleaf clusters.

After leaving the service, Brown worked as a social investigator for the New York Department of Welfare before accepting a position in September 1946 at West Virginia State College as a teacher and basketball coach. Two years later, he was awarded a Rosenwald Foundation grant to attend graduate school at New York University. He received a Ph.D. in education in 1951 and accepted a teaching position at NYU, where in 1964 he established and became director of the Institute for African-American Affairs, a position he held until 1977. While at NYU he wrote and edited four books, including Negro Almanac (1967), and hosted three major New York television series, one of which, Black Arts, received an Emmy Distinguished Program Award in 1973.

In 1977 Brown became president of Bronx Community College in New York, where he remained until 1993. From 1985 to 1993 he also served as president of One Hundred Black Men, helping to make the organization a major advocacy force for African Americans in New York. In the fall of 1993 he accepted a position as Director of the Center for Urban Education Policy and University Professor at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. Brown is the author of over sixty scholarly articles and serves on the board of numerous nonprofit organizations. For his scholarly and community activities, Brown has received many awards and honors, among them the NAACP Freedom Award, the Congressional Award for Service to the African-American Community, and honorary doctorates from Springfield College, the University of the State of New York, and the Regents of the State of New York.