Description
Reverend Dr. Andrew J. Brown, Jr. was born in Mississippi in 1921, and would go on to become one of the most influential civil rights leaders in Indianapolis. [1] After graduating high school, Brown attended the historically black Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, where he studied Baptist ministry. [2] Upon receiving his degree, Reverend Brown served in World War II in both the European and Pacific theaters, as one of the few field chaplains who specifically sought to provide “spiritual guidance for Black soldiers.” [3] In 1947, Brown and his wife Rosa Lee settled in Indianapolis where he preached at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, and the couple “immediately became active in the civil rights struggle which was beginning to come to light” in the city. [4]
When Reverend Brown first came to St. John Missionary Baptist Church, its small congregation of just 57 members were worshipping in a basement. [5] Under Brown’s leadership, the church was soon able to move to its own building in central Indianapolis, where the congregation would grow to become “one of the largest, most progressive Black churches in the United States.” [6] From this thriving church on Martindale Avenue, Reverend Brown preached his social gospel, calling for his congregation to rise up against injustice in Indianapolis.
Rev. Brown quickly earned a reputation as a powerful orator, and was invited to Baptist churches across the South to perform revivals—daily sermons given to a congregation by a visiting preacher over a week or longer to renew the faith of believers and to convert new members. [7] It was on one of these revival trips that Rev. Brown met a young Martin Luther King, Jr. as he finished up doctoral studies in the early 1950s. [8] Throughout the next decade, Rev. Brown and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became friends and colleagues; at one point, Rev. Brown fell ill on a revival trip to Atlanta and was taken in by King’s mother. [9] When King visited Indianapolis for speaking engagements, he stayed at the home of Reverend Brown. [10]
As the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement in the South came to national attention during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Reverend Andrew J. Brown, Jr., along with other black community leaders in the North, were inspired to take similar action. [11] Rev. Brown used his pulpit to attract national civil rights leaders to Indianapolis, hosting Coretta Scott King and Dr. Kelly Miller Smith at St. John Missionary Baptist Church. [12] Additionally, after his term as the president of the Indianapolis NAACP chapter, Rev. Brown formed his own organization to fight for civil rights in the city. [13] The Indianapolis Social Action Council (ISAC) arose at St. John Missionary Baptist Church during memorial services for assassinated Mississippi NAACP President Medgar Evers in 1963, with Rev. Brown as the group’s chairman, Local 117 Union President Herman Walker as executive director, attorney Willard B. Ransom as vice president, William Porter as treasurer, and Faye Williams as secretary. [14] ISAC’s initial goals were to increase black voter registration and to provide better opportunities “in the fields of employment, housing, education, citizenship participation, public accommodations, and all areas of health, welfare, and social action” for black Indianapolis residents. [15] The organization’s voter registration drive was especially impressive, resulting in “unprecedented numbers of African Americans voting in the city elections in November 1963,” which elected two African Americans to the City Council for the first time in 16 years. [16] Rev. Brown also established the Indianapolis Christian Leadership Conference as a Northern affiliate of the major civil rights organizing group, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. [17]
Reverend Brown and his congregants did not just fight for civil rights in Indianapolis, however. In August 1963, ISAC members bused to Washington, D.C. to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. [18] In March 1965, Rev. Brown joined civil rights activists from across the country to march in Selma, Alabama, in protest of what has come to be known as “Bloody Sunday,” the beating of peaceful protestors by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they planned to march from Selma to Montgomery. [19] Just four days after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968, Rev. Brown joined Coretta Scott King and other national figures in a march in Memphis, Tennessee, in solidarity with striking sanitation workers, and in memory of King. [20] The next month, Rev. Brown urged the black community of Indianapolis to join him in the Poor People’s March on Washington, to honor the memory and continue the legacy of Dr. King. [21]
Reverend Brown was also instrumental in creating lasting cultural institutions, which served the black community in Indianapolis and across the state. In 1970, Reverend Brown, alongside other Indianapolis African American religious and civil rights leaders, created the Indiana Black Expo (IBE), a charitable organization that empowers black Hoosiers through economic, educational, and medical assistance. [22] The IBE’s flagship event, the Summer Celebration, is an annual festival that celebrates black history and culture in Indiana. Reverend Brown was also the founder of the long-running Indianapolis radio program Operation Breadbasket. The popular program aired every Saturday morning on WTLC, and Brown used the platform to speak about civil rights issues and community interests, and to provide economic advice and spiritual messages for his listeners. [23]
Reverend Andrew J. Brown, Jr. retired from his position at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in 1990. [24] He passed away in 1996 at the age of 75, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy. Brown was remembered by Indiana Congressman Andrew Jacobs, Jr. on the floor of the House of Representatives as “Mr. Civil Rights in Indiana.” [25] From the moment he arrived in Indianapolis, Rev. Brown fought for the rights of not only his own congregation, but of people across the city, the state, and the country. In tribute to his foundational work, which made the city a far more inclusive place, Indianapolis has renamed Martindale Avenue, the location of St. John Missionary Baptist Church, to Dr. Andrew J. Brown Avenue in his honor. [26]
Source
[1] Tyler Fenwick, “Dr. Andrew J. Brown Brought National Civil Rights to Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Feb. 22, 2019.
[2] “Rev. A.J. Brown, Prexy, Speaker Sunday at Bethel,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 26, 1963; Amy Bertsch, “Bishop College,” East Texas History, accessed October 4, 2019, https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/141.
[3] “Rev. A.J. Brown, Prexy, Speaker Sunday at Bethel,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 26, 1963; “A.J. Brown, Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10, 1996.
[4] Tyler Fenwick, “Dr. Andrew J. Brown Brought National Civil Rights to Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Feb. 22, 2019; “Rev. Brown Praised for Religious, Civic Contributions at Testimonial,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 7, 1972.
[5] “A.J. Brown, Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10, 1996.
[6] “Rev. Brown Praised for Religious, Civic Contributions at Testimonial,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Oct. 7, 1972; “A.J. Brown, Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10, 1996.
[7] Wilson Fallin, Uplifting the People: Three Centuries of Black Baptists in Alabama, (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2007,) 83; Andrew J. Brown, Jr., “‘I Walked With Martin,’” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 13, 1968.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Tyler Fenwick, “Dr. Andrew J. Brown Brought National Civil Rights to Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Feb. 22, 2019.
[11] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, ed. Lana Ruegamer (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000), 164.
[12] “Freedom Concert Featuring Mrs. Martin Luther King,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 18, 1964; “Noted Rights Leader to Speak at Rally Sunday,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Dec. 14, 1963.
[13] “A.J. Brown Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10 1996.
[14] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 174.
[15] “Rev. A.J. Brown Named Chairman of Organization,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Jul. 6, 1963.
[16] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 175; “Noted Rights Leader to Speak at Rally Sunday,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Dec. 14, 1963.
[17] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 164.
[18] “Goldstein Joins 200,000 in D.C. March,” Jewish Post and Opinion (Indianapolis, IN), 30 Aug. 30, 1963.
[19] “ISAC Prexy Tells Why ‘I Had to Go to Selma, Alabama,’” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Mar. 13, 1965.
[20] Andrew J. Brown, Jr., “‘I Walked With Martin,’” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Apr. 13, 1968.
[21] “A.J. Brown Jr.: The Man and the Liberating Theology,” Indianapolis Recorder (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 10 1996.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Rob Schneider, “Rights Leader Rev. Andrew J. Brown Dies,” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN), Aug. 3, 1996.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Andrew Jacobs, Jr. “Honoring Andrew J. Brown,” Congressional Record 42, no. 125 (1996): 329. [26] “Contact Us,” St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church, accessed October 10, 2019, http://www.saintjohnsindy.net/contact/.