Ron Brown

"New York Times journalist Steven A. Holmes reveals not only who Brown was but exactly how he arrived at the nexus of power. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1941 and reared in Harlem, Brown was descended from a resourceful, ambitious African American family. His forebears traveled the dirt roads of the Reconstruction South. Brown came of age against the backdrop of the emerging Civil Rights movement. He immersed himself in the world as an equal to the best and brightest in elite schools, as an army officer, and as the chief lobbyist for the National Urban League. He penetrated the veil of the…