In
1942, Andrew and Zelma Brown left Wewoka, Oklahoma because they could not earn
enough money to support their seven children. They moved to California and settled
on a grape farm near Fresno and became a family of migrant workers, picking
grapes and cotton throughout the state.
Lee's mother insisted that
the family return to Fresno each September so that her children could start
school. She constantly stressed to them the importance of having a high school
education. In reviewing the passages of joy and pain that sum up his life, Dr.
Lee Brown credits his mother with being a constant beacon - showing the way
and holding the family together.
"Knowledge is power
and no one can take it away from you, once you have it."
Brown received a football
scholarship to Fresno State University where as an undergraduate, he majored
in criminology, He earned two master's degrees, one in criminology, the other
in sociology from San Jose State University, He received his doctorate in criminology
in 1970, at the University of California at Berkley.
He began his distinguished
career in law enforcement, in 1960, as a patrolman in San Jose, California.
In 1975, he became sheriff of Mulnomah County in Oregon. This strong man also
served as Atlanta Georgia's public safety commissioner from 1978 to 1982; police
chief in Houston, Texas from 1982 to 1990; and police commissioner for New York
City from 1990 to 1992.
Between law enforcement assignments,
Dr. Brown had an illustrious career as a university professor, He was a distinguished
professor at Texas Southern University and at Howard University in 1972, he
was the associate director of the Institute for Urban Affairs and Research and
held the rank of professor of public administration and director of criminal
justice programs. In 1993, President Clinton appointed Dr, Brown to his cabinet
as Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, where
he helped change the government's policy in its war against drug abuse. Dr.
Brown left the Clinton cabinet to accept an appointment at Rice University in
Houston, Texas and is now the Radoslav A. Tsanoff Professor of Public Affairs
in the department of sociology and a scholar in the James A. Baker, III Institute
for Public Policy.
When asked to share his wisdom
with young Americans, Dr. Brown replied, "I urge them to get an education and
to acquire all the knowledge that they can. Knowledge is power and no one can
take it away from you, once you have it."
