Michelle Norton
Staff Writer
During a campaign to achieve desegregation of public facilities in Birmingham, Ala., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed in 1963. From there he wrote his now famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
Then serving one of three jail terms, and placed in a neighboring cell, University of Houston's Academic Coordinator and professor Alexander Brown remembers the experience.
"Everyone shared a sense of camaraderie. We didn't talk much but tried to focus on the task at hand."
Best identified for his work and accomplishments as a youth leader during the 1960's, Brown was inducted Saturday into the 21st Century Youth Leader Hall of Fame in Selma, Alabama.
Starting at the age of seven, Brown began to participate in the civil rights movement when he insisted on drinking from a "whites only" water fountain to see if it tasted any different from the "coloreds only" fountain to which he was accustomed.
"After taking a drink, I was very disappointed. I expected the water to be better, but instead it tasted the same," Brown said as he remembers running away from his grandmother at the local W.T. Grant Store.
Continuing into the early '60s Dr. Brown began to fight for voting rights in his home town of Birmingham. Inspired by King, Brown participated in jail-ins and marches where he was bitten by dogs and blasted with water.
"I was inspired by the speeches of Dr. King to pursue the goal of freedom and to end segregation," Brown said.
Because of his efforts in Birmingham, in 1963 Brown was recruited by Reverend Bernard LaFayette and wife Colia to participate in the voting rights movement in Selma, Ala.
He joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in Selma and organized voter registration and education. At only 16 years of age, Brown was considered a major youth influence by Rev. LaFayette, who nominated him as an inductee into the Hall of Fame Museum.
At the induction ceremony, the 21st Century Youth Leader Hall of Fame saluted Brown and other participants in the civil rights movement with a performance by gospel singer Tyroane Hawkins and a civil rights play produced by local children.
Inductees into the Hall of Fame Museum are expected to "labor and continue to pursue a just community." As a long time participant in promoting voter registration, Brown works with the Harris County Labor Union.
Brown also teaches an introductory course in African-American studies and tutors young athletes at UH.
He said, "My participation in the movement has helped me not only grow as a person but strive to teach and expose young people about the issues of the present and the past."