By Melanie R. Holmes
AFRO Staff Writer
Philip Lorenzo Brown and his wife, Rachel Brown, sit below their portrait. Mr. Brown died last Friday at 100 years old. (Courtesy Photo/The Capital)
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(October 15, 2009) - Prominent Annapolis educator and author Philip Lorenzo Brown died in his home last Friday. He was 100.
Born on Jan. 16, 1909, Brown grew up during segregation in what he referred to as "the other Annapolis." He is most respected for leading the 1938 fight to win Black educators a salary equal to that of White teachers. Thurgood Marshall used Brown’s fight to build part of the Brown v. Board of Education case which, in 1954, led the U.S. Supreme Court to declare school segregation illegal.
“They were not willing to see Colored teachers were worth as much as white teachers,” Brown said in a AFRO Chronicles article titled “Equal Work Warranted Equal Pay.”
“White people just didn’t care,” he added. “They wanted to give us the minimum they could get away with.”
In 1928, the year that Brown earned his elementary teacher’s certificate from Bowie Normal School (now Bowie State University), Black elementary school teachers earned an average of $602 per year. In contrast, White elementary school teachers on average earned $1,155.
“Equal work warranted equal pay,” Brown argued.
In a statement last year, Brown said county officials of former years were "strong on the separate, but never got around to the equal." For instance, Black students went to school 140 days a year in inadequate facilities while White students were required to attend school for 180 days a year and were provided ideal learning environments.
Brown graduated from Morgan State College in 1947. He served as a teacher and principal in the Annapolis County school system and was also treasurer of the Colored Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County. Retired in 1970, he wrote several books about Black history in Anne Arundel County including A Century of Separate But Equal.
"He was a role model to many young individuals, particularly in the African-American community, and he preserved a great deal of the history of the African-American community," Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch said in a statement.
Loved ones remember Brown as a gentle man, though he never backed down from a challenge. His son particularly admires his father’s ability to fight racism without becoming a racist.
"Dad always, always said, when we were sitting around the table talking, 'You cannot blame all white people,' " Errol Brown Sr. was quoted as saying in The Capital, an Annapolis newspaper.
A public viewing will be held today at 9 a.m. today at Mt. Moriah Church on Bay Ridge Ave. Family and friends will receive visitors at the wake at 10 a.m., followed by the funeral at 11 a.m. Brown’s burial will be at Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery on Forest Drive.