Why Elaine Brown?

If you just want to die
and become a poster,
go ahead and do that -
we will all put you on the wall with all the rest of the people.
But if you want to effect change for your people
and you are serious about it, ...
Then you gonna have to realize that this may have to be a lifetime
commitment
and that the longer you live,
the more you can do.

(For full Text, see here)

Anna Deveare Smith portrayed Elaine Brown in her play on the Los Angelos Race riots: Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. We were intrigued by the piece, and strength of who was the character behind the words. What a bad choice! Detailed accounts of Elaine's life are few, aside from her autobiographical novel A Taste of Power. Who wants to spend hours searching for articles on Elaine Brown only to find ten on Huey Newton, or share the one available library book (overdue) that is the most complete account of her life? ...Apparently we did. However in the end, perhaps picking a person whom we did not ever know before, whom only a few people have heard of much less written about, forced us to open our minds more than if we had researched a more famous person, say for instance, Martin Luther King, Jr., or George Washington.

We hope we have been able to show to you the intensity and passion of Elaine's life, the violence, jealousy, and at times cut-throat aspects that were as much a part of Elaine's life as the vision and the faith and the perseverance. We hope you enjoyed our site and learned something new.

Victoria Bartolome
Cindy Lee
William Phan

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