Brown, Ronald Harmon, 1941-1996

<p>Ronald Harmon Brown (August 1, 1941 – April 3, 1996) was an American politician. He served as the United States Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President Bill Clinton. Prior to this he was chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). He was the first African American to hold these positions. He was killed, along with 34 others in a 1996 plane crash in Croatia.</p>

<p>Ron Brown was born in Washington, D.C., and was raised in Harlem, New York, in a middle-class family. He was a member of an African-American social and philanthropic organization, Jack and Jill of America. Brown attended Hunter College Elementary School and Rhodes Preparatory School. His father managed the Theresa Hotel in Harlem where Brown and his family also lived. His best friend John R. Nailor moved into the penthouse while he was a student at Rhodes. Nailor was one of the other few black students who attended Rhodes Prep. As a child, Brown appeared in an advertisement for Pepsi-Cola, one of the first to be targeted specifically towards the African-American community.</p>

<p>While at Middlebury College, Ron Brown became the first African-American member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, collegiate fraternity. Brown was commissioned through the ROTC program as a 2nd Lieutenant of Armor in the United States Army in 1962, after graduating from Middlebury, the same year he married Alma Arrington. After tours of duty in Germany and California, deploying temporarily to Korea, he left the United States Army as a Captain in 1967. Brown then joined the National Urban League, a leading economic equality group in the United States. Meanwhile, Brown enrolled in law school at St. John's University and obtained a degree in 1970.</p>

<p>Ron Brown served as the first African American secretary of commerce from 1993 until his death in a plane crash in Croatia in 1996.</p>

<p>Brown was born in Washington, D.C., in 1941 and received his undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in 1962. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and, from 1962 to 1967, commanded several units in the United States, Germany, and South Africa.</p>

<p>Returning to civilian life in 1967, Brown entered St. John's University Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1970. While studying law, Brown began his career with the National Urban League (1968). In the eleven years he spent there (1968-1979), he served as a developer-trainee adviser (1968-1976) and deputy executive director for programs and governmental affairs (1976-1979).Upon leaving the National Urban League, Brown worked for a short time as the deputy campaign manager for Senator Edward Kennedy. From 1981 to 1986, Brown was a lobbyist and lawyer with the law firm of Patton, Boggs & Blow.</p>

<p>Immediately prior to joining the Clinton administration, Brown was elected to the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, a position he held from 1987 to 1993.</p>