Mildred Brown

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Mildred Brown
Born	1915 Alabama
Died	1989 Omaha, Nebraska
Occupation	Newspaper publisher, civic activist
Spouse	S. Edward Gilbert (ex)

Mildred Brown (1915-1989), journalist and newspaper publisher, was a prominent African-American leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska. She founded and ran the Omaha Star, a newspaper of the African-American community. She was the first African American and one of only three women inducted into the Omaha Business Hall of Fame.

Contents 1 Early life and family 2 Career 3 Honors 4 See also 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Early life and family

Mildred Brown was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1915 to Rev. and Mrs. Bennie J. Brown, a prominent African-American family.^[1] They encouraged her education. In 1931 Brown graduated from Miles College (then called Miles Memorial Teachers College), an historically black college (HBCU) founded in Birmingham, Alabama by the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME Church).

She also studied at Chicago Normal College and took journalism at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Although Brown started as an English teacher in Sioux City, Iowa, she was encouraged in journalism and started selling ads and writing news at the Silent Messenger there.^[2]

In 1936 Brown married S. Edward Gilbert, a graduate of Howard University who was editor of the Silent Messenger. They moved to Omaha in 1937.^[3]

[edit] Career

In 1938 the couple founded the Omaha Star, soon to be the only African-American newspaper in Omaha. Still operating, it has become the longest-running newspaper in the city's history.

Brown and Gilbert divorced in 1945, with Brown taking charge of the newspaper's operations as the "Advertising and General Manager." Brown used the newspaper as a way of expanding opportunities for the African-American community, especially for jobs. She hired young black men and provided scholarships for education. She refused to accept advertising from businesses that discriminated against blacks in hiring and led boycotts of companies that discriminated in hiring against blacks. Seeing the paper as a center of community journalism, she promoted positive news about accomplishments.^[4]

In the late 1940s, Brown became involved with Omaha's DePorres Club, a group of high school students and Creighton University students fighting against racial discrimination in Omaha. Brown volunteered the Star's office for use by the club after Creighton kicked them off campus, and she also provided the young people with informal guidance and support.

As a well-known journalist and publisher, Brown had a wide circle of friends, who invited her on many travels for business, conventions, social events, and meetings with other publishers of black and white papers.

Brown lived in an apartment in the Omaha Star building in the North Omaha neighborhood from 1938 to her death in 1989. Her niece Marguerita Washington has continued to publish the newspaper.^[5]

[edit] Honors

• Brown was the first African American and one of only three women inducted into the Omaha Business Hall of Fame.
• The National Newspaper Publishers Association, with 200 member owners of black newspapers, one year recognized the Omaha Star as having the "Best Church Page".^[6]
• The Omaha Star Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of the newspaper's significance in the history of Omaha, journalism, and the civil rights movement.
• The Mildred Brown Memorial Strolling Park was dedicated in her honor in May 2008 next to the Omaha Star building.^[7]

[edit] See also

• Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska
• History of North Omaha, Nebraska

[edit] External links

• Three Nebraska Women NETCHE website.
• Mildred Brown: "Omaha Star" Founder

[edit] References

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