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by Scott Braley
Richard Edward Brown was a father, grandfather, friend and revolutionary. He was born March 23, 1941, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Roberta Doris Tucker and Paul Brown.
Richard resided in San Francisco beginning at a young age and joined the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. He served and protected his community and his people in it. There was a creed the Panthers lived by called the 10 Point Program. The very first point described Richard and his life:
“Point One: We want Freedom. We want the power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.”
Richard fought for freedom for Black people and for human rights for all people. He continued to work and educate in the Fillmore community where he lived for over 50 years.
Some of the work implementing his principles and promoting change included working at Ella Hill Hutch Community Center; the African American Community Relations Board; Community Judge Arbiter; and the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, which came out of the five-year defense of Richard and the other members of the San Francisco 8.
1n 2014 Richard testified in Geneva at the UN Human Rights council review of the US human rights record, specifically about the existence of political prisoners in the US.
Richard’s celebration was on July 20, 2018, at Third Baptist Church in his beloved Fillmore. He is greatly missed by the many people he touched.
Writer and photojournalist Scott Braley can be reached at scott@scottbraley.com.
