Rosemary Brown

Canadian legislator, social activist, and educator

• Born: June 17, 1930
• Birthplace: Kingston, Jamaica
• Died: April 26, 2003
• Place of death: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Also known as: Rosemary Wedderburn

Education: McGill University; University of British Columbia

Significance: Rosemary Brown was a legislator, social activist, and professor. She developed and implemented many programs aimed at promoting justice and equality for minorities and women.

Background

Rosemary (Wedderburn) Brown was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on June 17, 1930. Her father died during her early childhood, and she was brought up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood by her mother and grandmother. She was also influenced by her uncle who was a leading surgeon in Jamaica. Her family was politically active in Jamaica, which at the time of Brown’s birth was a British colony. Upon graduating from the Wolmer’s School, Brown prepared to attend an international university. Her family worried that racism in the United States and England would make it difficult for her to complete her education and therefore chose to send her to attend university in Canada.

Despite her family’s attempts to avoid a racially divided campus and education, Brown encountered racism in Canada. She enrolled at McGill University in 1951. While she had planned to share a room with another student, she was given a private dormitory room because other students refused to live with her on account of her race. Later, Brown faced racial discrimination from prospective landlords and employers. Brown earned a bachelor’s degree from McGill in 1955.

After graduating from McGill, Brown moved to Vancouver and married William "Bill" Brown. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in social work in 1962 and a master’s of social work in 1965 at the University of British Columbia. Together, Brown and her husband became founding members of the British Columbia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (BCAACP). While working with the BCAACP, Brown focused on fair housing and employment policies. She also joined Voice of Women in 1960, a group that worked toward the control and elimination of nuclear weapons. She also appeared as a panelist on the weekly People in Conflict television series, which aired throughout Canada.

Life’s Work

Brown spent her early career as a social worker in a variety of hospitals in Vancouver. Then, in 1972 she entered politics as a coordinator, ombudswoman, and a founding member of the Vancouver Status of Women Council (VSW). This group aimed to support women in their electoral campaigns. With the VSW’s support, Brown was elected to represent the riding of Vancouver-Burrard, becoming the first black woman to be elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. She served in the BC legislature for fourteen years, from 1972 to 1986. As a legislator, Brown focused on racial and gender discrimination, introducing legislation to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex or marital status. She also organized a committee to eliminate sexism in Canadian textbooks. Then, in 1975 she ran for a leadership position for the federal New Democratic Party with the slogan "Brown Is Beautiful." Although she lost to Ed Broadbent on the fourth ballot, she became the first woman to run for the national leadership of a political party.

After leaving office, Brown became a professor of women’s studies at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. While working at Simon Fraser, Brown spoke out about the role of violence in women’s lives and argued that gender violence is a tool oppressors use to maintain structural inequalities. She encouraged scholars to study the intersections of gender violence with other types of violence and oppression that appear in the form of racism, classism, and religious oppression. She also spoke at the United Nations Conference on Homelessness and helped prepare two television programs on women and politics for the Knowledge network. In 1989, she published an autobiography titled Being Brown: A Very Public Life.

Brown also worked for international human rights organizations. She served in many capacities at the Ottawa-based MATCH International Women’s Fund, including the roles of executive director, special ambassador, board member, and president. This nongovernmental organization provides funding for groups working to advance women’s rights around the world. In commemorating Brown’s life, MATCH International stated that Brown encouraged the group to raise living standards for people around the world.

In addition to working with nongovernmental organizations, Brown remained active in politics after she left the BC legislature. Between 1993 and 1996 she was the chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. She also served as a member of Canada’s Security Intelligence Review Committee from 1993 to 1998. This is an oversight committee that reports directly to the Canadian Parliament regarding actions taken by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The goal of the Security Intelligence Review Committee is to ensure that Canadians’ rights are not infringed upon by the Intelligence Service. From 1991 to 2002, Brown wrote a regular column for the Vancouver Sun.

Brown’s work has been recognized by many national and international organizations. In 1973 she was awarded a United Nations Human Rights Fellowship. Throughout her career she was awarded fifteen honorary doctorates, including honorary degrees from the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, and McGill University. She received the Order of British Columbia in 1995 and the Order of Canada in 1996. After her death in 2003, Simon Fraser University established the Rosemary Brown Award for Women. In 2009 Canada Post issued a special postage stamp in her honor. In 2014, the Vancouver Branch of the United Nations Association in Canada launched an annual human rights conference named for Brown.

Impact

Rosemary Brown had a significant impact on addressing discrimination and inequality in Canada. Throughout her life, Brown put forward the philosophy that human rights could be best preserved by addressing racism, sexism, and other forms of inequality in early education. At her funeral, many politicians, scholars, and human rights activists spoke of her work to promote inclusion, justice, and human rights.

Personal Life

Rosemary Brown married Dr. William T. Brown in 1955. They had three children, Cleta, Gary, and Jonathan, and seven grandchildren. Brown died at the age of seventy-two on April 26, 2003, at her home in Vancouver.

Bibliography

Brown, Rosemary. Being Brown: A Very Public Life. New York: Random, 1989. Print.

Cormack, Patricia. "Making the Sociological Promise: A Case Study of Rosemary Brown’s Autobiography." Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 36.3 (1999): 355. Print.

Mills, Jennifer. "Conferencing as a Site for the Mobilization of Black Feminist Identities in the Congress of Black Women of Canada, 1973–1983. Journal of Black Studies 46.4 (2015): 415–41. Print.

Reid, Linda. "Celebrating BC’s First 100 Women Members of the Legislative Assembly." Canadian Parliamentary Review 38.1 (2015): 2–5. Print.

Ricci, Amanda. "Searching for Zion: Pan-African Feminist Thought and Practice in English-Speaking Black Montreal (1967–1977)." Left History 17.1 (2013). Print.

Trimble, Linda, et al. "Politicizing Bodies: Hegemonic Masculinity, Heteronormativity, and Racism in News Representations of Canadian Political Party Leadership Candidates." Women’s Studies in Communication 38.3 (2015): 314–30. Print.