The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Phillip Brown




Overview of the Item

Repository: The HistoryMakers
1900 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60616
(312) 674-1900
info@thehistorymakers.com
http://www.thehistorymakers.com
Interviewer: Racine Tucker-Hamilton
Videographer: Edgar Carey Lane
Title:Video Oral History Interview with Phillip Brown
Dates:June 04, 2004
Abstract: (ABSTRACT)
Quantity: 4 Betacam SP videocassettes, 1 half-Hollinger box containing (NUMBER) folders of accompanying materials.
Identification: A2004.063
Language: The interviews and records are in English

Biographical Note

Author, historian and educator Philip Lorenzo Brown was born on January 16, 1909 in Annapolis, Maryland. His father operated a grocery store and worked as a maintenance man at the U.S. Naval Academy and his mother was a homemaker. In 1926, he earned his diploma from Stanton High School in Annapolis. While in high school, Brown enjoyed attending movies, playing football and working in the family grocery store. He graduated from Bowie Normal School, now know as Bowie State University, in 1928, and began his teaching career when he was just nineteen in the Anne Arundel County school system.

In 1932, Brown married Rachel Hall, a teacher at the two-room school where he served as principal. Shortly after his marriage he and his wife attended classes at Morgan State University where both earned their bachelors degrees in education. After forming the Colored Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County in 1938, Brown led the effort to sue the Anne Arundel Board of Education for equal pay for African American teachers. The teachers were represented by former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. In 1955, Brown earned his master's degree in education from New York University.

During his tenure as a teacher in Anne Arundel County, he taught in several elementary schools and later at Bates High School, where he served as Vice Principal in 1966 when Anne Arundel County schools were finally integrated. In 1970, Brown retired from the school system.

Brown has spent most of his retirement years researching and documenting local black history, especially that of black schools. In 1988, Brown published his first book A Century of Separate But Equal Education in Anne Arundel County. Six years later he published a pictorial book documenting the history of blacks in Anne Arundel County, The Other Annapolis, the Life and Times of Blacks in Annapolis from 1900-1950. In 2000, Brown put pen to paper again when he published The Mount Moriah Story 1875-1973 a book detailing the creation and rise of the first African Methodist Episcopal church in Annapolis. Finally in 2001 he published his latest book, The Stanton Elementary School Story which was the first school in Annapolis for blacks and his alma mater.

Brown and his wife, Rachel, have two grown children and reside in Annapolis.

Biographical Note by The HistoryMakers®


Scope and Contents

This life oral history interview with Phillip Brown was conducted by Racine Tucker-Hamilton on 2004-06-04 in 3502 Narragansett Avenue, Annapolis, Maryland and is recorded on 4 30-minute Betacam SP videocassettes. Access copies exist on Betacam SP, VHS, DVD and MPEG-1. The interview contains information on (COMPLETE ONE SENTENCE DESCRIPTION OF INTERVIEW). Accompanying materials in the collection include Phillip Brown's correspondence with The HistoryMakers® related to the interview; a copy of the signed release form and the production report; the biographical information used by the interviewer to prepare for the interview (DETAILS); paper copies of the interview transcripts, 3 1/2" floppy disks with electronic copies of the transcripts; selected quotes for video clips; photocopies of photographs captured on video; XML files with metadata created in editing and cataloguing the interview for The HistoryMakers Digital Video Library; and paper copies of these XML files.


Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

Access to paper records is restricted. Other restrictions may be applied on a case-by-case basis.

Restrictions on Use

All use of materials must be pre-approved by The HistoryMakers® and appropriate credit must be given. All use credits must be pre-approved by The HistoryMakers®. Copyright is held by The HistoryMakers®.


Index Terms

This record series is indexed under the following controlled access terms.
Contributors:
Brown, Phillip
Lane, Edgar Carey
Tucker-Hamilton, Racine
Persons:
(PERSONS)
Corporate Bodies:
(CORPORATE BODIES)
Family Names:
Brown
Places:
(PLACES)
Subjects:
(SUBJECTS)
Document Types:
Video oral history interview
Titles:
The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Phillip Brown


Related Material

Accompanying materials: Accompanying materials are filed in (NUMBER) folders in a half-Hollinger box and shelved at The HistoryMakers® Archives and Collection Library by accession number, separately from the videos.


Administrative Information

Location of Originals

Betacam, VHS, DVD and MPEG-1 access copies are held for in-house use at The HistoryMakers®; Betacam SP, VHS and DVD playback hardware is provided for in-house viewing of the access copies; MPEG-1 copies are searchable and viewable via a digital video database.

Preferred Citation

The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Phillip Brown, June 04, 2004. The HistoryMakers® African American Video Oral History Collection, 1900 S. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois.


Detailed Description/Tape Listings

Video Oral History Interview with Phillip Brown, Tape 1, June 04, 2004, TRT: 00:31:19.

Author, historian and educator Philip L. Brown, born in 1909, recalls growing up in a large working class family in Annapolis Maryland. He describes his parents, their close African American community, the all-black Stanton School, where he attended both elementary and high school, church activities, and recreation he enjoyed in his youth.



Video Oral History Interview with Phillip Brown, Tape 2, June 04, 2004, TRT: 00:31:50.

Author, historian and educator Philip L. Brown talks about his high school years at the Stanton School, the first school for African Americans in Annapolis, Maryland. He tells of his experiences at Bowie Normal School, playing football and socializing while studying to get a teaching certificate. He describes his early teaching assignments for Anne Arundel County, his marriage to another teacher; the formation of the Colored Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County and a lawsuit to protest inequality in salaries of black and white teachers; his and his wife's graduate studies at New York University, and the integration of public schools in Anne Arundel County in 1966.



Video Oral History Interview with Phillip Brown, Tape 3, June 04, 2004, TRT: 00:29:50.

Author, historian and educator Philip L. Brown continues to tell about the integration, beginning in 1966, of schools in Annapolis, Maryland, where he was a vice-principal. He shares his experience of education for African Americans in Anne Arundel County over the course of his forty-two year teaching career and gives his thoughts on integration, busing, test score bias and teaching methods. Mr. Brown also talks about his first two historical books, 'A Century of "Separate but Equal" Education in Anne Arundel County, Maryland' and 'The Other Annapolis: 1900-1950.'



Video Oral History Interview with Phillip Brown, Tape 4, June 04, 2004, TRT: 00:17:50.

Author, historian and educator Philip L. Brown reflects on his life, his career as a teacher and his seventy-two years of marriage to Rachel Hall Brown. One of his greatest worries is America's loss of manufacturing jobs that paid a good living wage to many black people. He gives advice for those wanting to teach and says it is important for young African Americans to study black history, to learn that "many extraordinary things are done by ordinary people."