Former Black Panther leader runs for mayor
by JAMAL E. WATSON
Amsterdam News Staff
Originally posted 7/28/2005

In what is shaping up to be one of the country’s most fascinating mayoral races, a former Black Panther Party leader is vying to become mayor of a small Georgia town.Elaine Brown, the first and only Black woman to lead the Black Panther Party, is knocking on doors in the city of Brunswick, Georgia, urging the largely Black population who live there to support her efforts for mayor.Her platform is simple. She’s advocating for full employment for the 16,000 residents who live in the town, located about 300 miles south of Atlanta.

The city’s port, which is home to the Gullah people, has steadily been threatened by developers amid plans to gentrify, and the city’s public school system is in dire need of reform.
“I’m trying to win this seat to create a base of economic power for Brunswick’s majority Black and poor population through the redistribution of the massive revenues of the city’s powerful port,” said Brown in a recent interview with the Amsterdam News. “I intend to be the first Black mayor and the first woman mayor in a city now controlled by a white, wealthy consortium whose current mayor is a lieutenant colonel in the Sons of Confederate Veterans.”

Brown, a native of Philadelphia, was drawn to Brunswick while protesting President George W. Bush and the G-8 Summit, which consists of 8 major industrial nations: U.S., Russia, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan. They met in Brunswick, a city that hugs the shores, in 2004.
“I realized while protesting here that there was a tremendous wealth of heritage here for our people,” said Brown, who relocated from Atlanta and quickly decided to run for office.
She marvels at the fact that Marcus Garvey and other Black luminaries passed through this city, which at one time boasted a sizeable Black middle-class.

But today, 57 percent of African Americans in the city live below the poverty line.
“There’s an opportunity for a small city with a majority Black population to have real power,” said Brown, who despite her involvement in freedom movements is virtually unknown by many African Americans in town.
“Younger people especially really don’t know who I am,” she said. “Most of them have never heard of the film ‘Panther.’”
Brown, who is running under the umbrella of the Green Party, though the election is actually non-partisan, has received a major endorsement from Rev. Al Sharpton, who will be in Brunswick next week generating momentum for her candidacy.
“I think her campaign can be a real test for how far we’ve come in political empowerment,” said Sharpton. “If I can lend my name recognition to help Elaine, I’m happy to do it.”

Brown said that Sharpton’s endorsement and his presence will likely draw in new Black voters this election season. She laments the fact that many Blacks here have long become complacent, feeling like they can’t make much of a difference.
“His [Sharpton’s] visit is going to galvanize this community and get them ready to vote,” she said.
Brown has already secured support from the city’s longshoremen and has sponsored barbecues and fish fries in the city’s six housing projects.

“I’m talking to everyone,” said Brown, who is currently writing a book about the trial of H. Rap Brown, another Black Panther member. “At the top of my agenda is economic and political power for the Black residents of Brunswick, and forestalling a development plan that would displace Brunswick’s Black population.”
Brown was elected as chairman of the Black Panther Party in 1974. Her autobiography, “A Taste of Power,” is currently being developed by Suzanne de Passe as an HBO movie.

Jamal E. Watson can be reached at jamalwats@aol.com.