Edward Everett Brown
{{Short description|American lawyer, civil rights activists (1858–1919)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Edward Everett Brown
| image = Boston Attorney and Anti-lynching advocate, Edward Everett Brown art detail, from- The Colored American front page Nov 25, 1899 (cropped).jpg
| birth_date = 1858
| birth_place = Dover, New Hampshire, United States
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1919|01|14|1858||}}
| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts, United States
| burial_place = Pine Hill Cemetery, Dover, New Hampshire, United States
| education = Dartmouth College, Boston University School of Law
| occupation = Lawyer, author, orator, civil servant
| relatives = Nellie Brown Mitchell (sister)
}}
Edward Everett Brown (1858 – January 14, 1919) was an American lawyer, author, civil servant, and orator in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1899, he helped draft anti-lynching legislation, and advocated for civil rights. He was a Republican.{{Cite news |date=November 25, 1899 |title=Edward Everett Brown 1899 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-colored-american-edward-everett-brow/17680043/ |newspaper=The Colored American |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Early life and education
Edward Everett Brown was born on 1858 in Dover, New Hampshire, to parents Martha A. (née Runnels) and Charles J. Brown. Two of his sisters were singers, Nellie Brown Mitchell and Edna E. Brown.{{Cite web |last=Downey |first=K. C. |date=2024-02-21 |title=NH siblings — one a singer and inventor, and the other a lawyer — were civil rights activists |url=https://www.wmur.com/article/dover-new-hampshire-nellie-mitchell-edward-brown/46886356 |access-date=2025-01-11 |website=WMUR-TV |language=en |type=video, article}} He graduated from Dover High School in 1878.{{Cite book |last= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sB4tAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA324 |title=Mayor's Address, and Annual Report of Receipts and Expenditures |date=1909 |publisher=The Marshall Press, Printers |location=Dover, New Hampshire |pages=324 |language=en |via=Google Books}}
Brown studied at Dartmouth College, where he studied French and Latin and was an orator. He gave a speech on genius that received plaudits. He then studied law under New Hampshire judge John H. White. He continued his studies at Boston University Law School and worked in the law office of ex-governor William Gaston along with ex-mayor of Boston Edwin Upton Curtis.
He married and held social functions at his home. His home was at 16 Fountain Street in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston.
Career
Brown was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1884. In 1885, Brown and friend George C. Freeman were denied entrance to a roller skating rink in Boston, called Highland Rink; Brown and lawyer James Harris Wolff took the rink owner David H. McKay to the Roxbury Municipal Court for racial discrimination and violating a 1865 state law from the Reconstruction-era.{{Cite book |last=Burstein |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s8L8EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA285 |title=Longing for Connection: Entangled Memories and Emotional Loss in Early America |date=2024-04-23 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-1-4214-4830-5 |pages=285 |language=en |via=Google Books}}{{Cite web |last=Neal |first=Anthony W. |date=January 14, 2015 |title=James Harris Wolff: Civil War veteran, prominent Boston attorney |url=https://baystatebanner.com/2015/01/14/james-harris-wolff-civil-war-veteran-prominent-boston-attorney/ |access-date=2025-01-11 |website=The Bay State Banner |issn=1946-6730}} They won the case, and brought additional cases forward against the rink a year later.
In 1886, he became a partner at the law firm Walker, Wolff, and Brown, led by Brown, Edwin Garrison Walker, and James Harris Wolff, and it was Boston's first "colored" law firm.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fms4AQAAIAAJ |title=Massachusetts Legal History: A Journal of the Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society |date=1999 |publisher=The Society |pages=122 |language=en}}
Brown was a member of the Wendell Phillips Club, and founding president of the Crispus Attucks Club in Boston. He was first vice president of the National League of Boston.
Brown wrote the book, "Sketch of the Life of Mr. Lewis Charlton, and Reminiscences of Slavery" (c. 1870, Daily Press Print) about Lewis Charlton, a formerly enslaved person who became a school founder, and temperance advocate.{{cite web | url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/charlton/menu.html | title=Lewis Charlton and Edward Everett Brown, edited by Sketch of the Life of Mr. Lewis Charlton, and Reminiscences of Slavery }}{{Cite web|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Brown,+Edward+Everett|title=Edward Everett Brown | The Online Books Page|website=onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu}}
He worked as the Boston Deputy Health Commissioner, and at the time of his death the Boston Deputy Collector.{{Cite magazine |last=Du Bois |first=William Edward Burghardt |author-link=William Edward Burghardt Du Bois |date=1919 |title=Edward "Ed" Everett Brown |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vaITAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA65 |magazine=The Crisis |publisher=Crisis Publishing Company |pages=65 |language=en |via=Google Books}}
Death
Brown died on January 14, 1919.{{Cite news |date=1919-01-18 |title=Obituary for Edward Everett Brown |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-obituary-for-edward-eve/162763430/ |access-date=2025-01-11 |work=The New York Age |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com}} His burial was at Pine Hill Cemetery in Dover, New Hampshire.{{Cite news |date=January 12, 1919 |title=Funeral for Edward Everett Brown |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-funeral-for-edward-ever/136307723/ |work=The Boston Globe |pages=15 |via=Newspapers.com}} A marker honoring him and his sister is on the New Hampshire Black Heritage Trail.{{Cite web |date=July 14, 2023 |title=NH Black Heritage Trail will unveil new marker in Dover Saturday |url=https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2023-07-14/nh-black-heritage-trail-will-unveil-new-marker-in-dover-saturday |website=New Hampshire Public Radio}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120412266/edward-everett-brown/photo Findagrave entry]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Edward Everett}}
Category:19th-century African-American lawyers
Category:19th-century American lawyers
Category:American civil rights activists
Category:American civil rights lawyers
Category:Boston University alumni