Elaine Brown Online

Elaine Brown is a former leader of the Black Panther Party—Minister of Information and Chairman.  She is the author of A Taste of Power and The Condemnation of Little B.  In March, the film rights to A Taste of Power were optioned for a major motion picture.

Elaine is presently co-authoring For Reasons of Race and Belief, The Trials of Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) with Karima Al-Amin and completing the nonfiction book Melba and Al, A Story of Black Love in Jim Crow America.

Elaine is the Executive Director of the Michael Lewis Legal Defense Committee, supporting the legal appeal of Lewis (“Little B”), who, arrested in 1997 in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 13 for a murder he did not commit, was convicted and sentenced as an adult to life in prison, where he remains.
 

Elaine is CEO of the non-profit organization Oakland & the World Enterprises, Inc., dedicated to launching and sustaining for-profit businesses for cooperative-ownership by formerly incarcerated people and other people facing monumental social barriers to economic survival.

Elaine lived in France for seven years before returning to the U.S. in 1996, and has traveled extensively elsewhere in the world.  She studied classical piano for many years, and has recorded two albums of original songs, one for Motown records, Until We’re Free, and her 1969 album, Seize the Time, now on iTunes.

Elaine grew up in the ghettos of North Philadelphia, is a “Distinguished Graduate” of the Philadelphia High School for Girls, and attended Temple University, UCLA, Mills College and Southwestern University School of Law.  She has lectured at colleges and universities throughout world, and her papers have been acquired by Emory University.  She is the mother of one adult daughter, Ericka Abram, and currently resides in Oakland, California.

  The Mission of Oakland & the World Enterprises (OAW), a nonprofit organization, is to launch for-profit businesses for cooperative ownership by formerly incarcerated and other people facing extreme barriers to economic survival and support those businesses to profitability.  Our first business is West Oakland Farms, situated on our property at Seventh and Campbell Streets in West Oakland, California.  We broke ground in April 2022 on our 100% affordable housing complex, with 79 units of housing for low and very low income people and ground floor commercial space for other OAW businesses, including a fitness center, a neighborhood market, a restaurant with live entertainment and a tech center.  We also launched our food truck in September of 2021.  We believe we are creating a model for Oakland and, indeed, the world toward alleviating poverty, reducing crime and creating the conditions for prosperity for everyone