Brown, Rosemary (1930—)

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Brown, Rosemary (1930—)

Feminist activist and first black woman to be elected to any parliament in Canada. Born Rosemary Wedderburn on June 17, 1930 at Kingston, Jamaica; retired in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; second child of Ralph Wedderburn (a businessman) and Enid James; attended Westwood Boarding School, Wolmer's High School, McGill University (graduated Bachelor of Arts) and the University of British Columbia (graduated Master of Social Work); married William (Bill) Brown, 1955; children: Cleta Brown (b. 1957); Gary (b. 1959); Jonathon (b. 1965).

Jamaica became independent nation (1960); election of first New Democratic Party (NDP) government in Canada (1972); Brown given the Black Award, National Black Coalition of Canada (1974);

awarded honorary doctorate in Human Letters from St. Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia (1981).

Selected writings:

Being Brown (1989); Problems of Social Change in Canada: A Feminist Perspective (1977).

Rosemary Brown was born on June 17, 1930, in Kingston, Jamaica, which was then part of the British West Indies. Her father Ralph Wedderburn, a prominent businessman on the island, died when she was four years old. Shortly thereafter, her mother Enid remarried and moved away, leaving her children to be raised by aunts and uncles and, in particular, by their maternal grandmother. It was the latter, Imogene Wilson-James , who had the greatest formative impact on Rosemary's early life and upbringing.

Imogene Wilson-James had arrived in Jamaica in 1848, a small child among the many indentured laborers then being brought to the island by the British. Through a combination of hard work, financial acumen, and good luck, she managed to accumulate sufficient monetary assets to enable her to pursue a series of highly profitable investments in land. Indeed, by the time Rosemary was born, Imogene's large household had become one of the leading and most successful in Jamaica. Wilson-James' interests extended beyond finance to politics where she was one of the founding members of the left-wing People's National Party (PNP). For many years, she played a leading role in the movement to bring about universal suffrage and fair labor practices. Many other members of the family also rose to positions of prominence within the community. For example, Leila James-Tomlinson , one of Imogene's daughters, worked to help develop the Jamaican welfare system and later, following the nation's independence, became an eminent judge.

After attending a local elementary school in Kingston (where she displayed, at an early age, a keen interest in English literature), Rosemary was sent to the highly prestigious and socially exclusive Westwood private boarding school for girls. She remained there until she was 16 before being enrolled at Wolmer's high school for girls, another distinguished and reputable institution that had previously been attended by her mother and aunts. It was there that she began to develop her own interest in politics. She joined the youth wing of the PNP and could often be found handing out leaflets on the streets of Kingston as well as sending letters of protest to newspapers and government officials on various issues of social concern. At this time, Rosemary also developed a strong interest in religion (another influence that she received from her grandmother).

Many of Brown's close relations had traveled abroad, usually to England, in order to complete their higher education. In August 1950, Rosemary decided to follow in the same path but chose to enroll at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. During her four years there, Brown was consistently shocked by the extent of institutionalized racism that existed in the community. She found it extremely difficult to find suitable accommodation and, when looking for summer employment, had to be content with low-paying, menial jobs. Immigration officers, to whom Brown had to apply every year for an extension of her visa, were also a source of worry. As a member of the West Indian student community, many of whom professed radical left-wing views, she constantly faced the possibility of deportation. Despite these trials, however, Brown successfully completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in literature and graduated in 1954.

Rosemary Brown">
All feminists may not be socialists, but all socialists must be feminists.
—Rosemary Brown

It was during the course of her studies that she met her future husband Bill Brown. Bill had come to McGill University from his home in Georgia to complete a doctoral degree in biochemistry. After the couple decided to marry, he left in 1953 for the medical school at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver where he was to complete his studies in clinical psychiatry. As soon as Rosemary finished her own degree, she traveled to Vancouver to join Bill, and they were married in 1955.

Once again, Rosemary Brown was dispirited by the extent of racist attitudes that prevailed in society. Locating a suitable apartment was a trying and onerous task, and the only job that she could find was as a clerk in the offices of the Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia. Following the birth of her first child, a daughter named Cleta in 1957, Brown became more closely involved in the black community in Vancouver. She joined the newly formed British Columbia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (BCAACP), an activist organization patterned after the NAACP in the United States. Brown was later elected to the executive committee of this association, which pressed for the introduction of human rights' legislation to combat racist attitudes in housing, employment, and education.

Brown's activities were not, however, confined to the struggle against racism. By 1958, she was working as a volunteer at the Vancouver Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre located at Vancouver General Hospital where her husband was also then working. More significantly, perhaps, she also became involved in the growing feminist and peace movements and spent much of her time lobbying politicians, organizing demonstrations, and writing letters to newspapers. This more active and public role was partially the result of the fact that she and her husband had now become Canadian citizens. She no longer had to face the threat of deportation for her political activities.

During these years, Bill constantly encouraged his wife to seek a career for herself. Rosemary tried writing (but with little success) and briefly considered attending law school. Thanks to her work for the Children's Aid Society of British Columbia, she eventually decided to take a graduate degree in social work, which she received in 1964. In the next few years, Brown achieved an increasingly prominent position in a variety of advocacy groups in British Columbia. She combined these activities with a new job in the counseling service at Simon Fraser University (which is also located in Vancouver).

Brown's principal concern, however, was with the women's rights movement. In the late 1960s, she joined the Vancouver Status of Women Council, a broad feminist coalition that was working to implement the proposals contained in the federal government's Royal Commission on the Status of Women. The council had established special sub-committees to deal with such issues as education, finance, and the media and asked Brown to design and develop an advocacy structure for women. Between 1970 and 1972, she ran an ombudservice where women could bring specific complaints on a wide range of issues, such as unfair labor practices, equal pay, family violence, and inequitable divorce settlements. Brown's job was to not only press for changes in existing legislation, but to help women facing these concerns gain access to adequate legal aid.

It was during this period that she joined the provincial wing of the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP). Shortly after, she was approached by members of the party leadership and asked to run for election to the provincial legislature in the forthcoming election. This request was endorsed by Brown's colleagues on the Status of Women Council who were willing to support any woman running for elective office, regardless of party political affiliation, as long as that woman would pledge to work for improvements in women's rights. Brown was initially reluctant to accept this invitation. Few women had ever been elected to office in British Columbia, and she suffered from the additional disadvantage of being a black immigrant. Nevertheless, she finally did accept the nomination for the riding of Vancouver-Burrard. In August 1972, Brown was elected as part of the first ever NDP government in the history of the province.

Although the new government did introduce several measures that had a progressive effect for women (for example, health collectives, childcare services, and a human rights code outlawing discrimination on the basis of sex or marital status), many feminists were unhappy about the pace and extent of the reforms. In particular, they were angry that Dave Barrett, then NDP leader and premier of the province, refused to establish a Ministry of Women (despite the fact that this was official party policy) or to take Brown into his cabinet. Part of the reason for this was the fact that Barrett and Brown disliked one another intensely, and the latter lost no opportunity in attacking the government when she felt it was ignoring the needs and wishes of the people. Specifically, she focused on the plight of immigrant women, the lack of affordable housing, foreign ownership of natural resources, and corporate control of the environment.

More than anything else, however, Brown was relentlessly dedicated to increasing the amount of female representation in the NDP and attacking the sexism and paternalism that she believed was rampant in the party. This deepening commitment to the feminist movement was practically demonstrated through her membership on the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and the federal-government-sponsored Advisory Council on the Status of Women. In these endeavors, Brown adopted the motto of the Council of Women, a turn-of-the-century feminist organization: "truth, honesty, purity, justice and righteousness should be the foundation for women's involvement in politics."

Early in 1975, David Lewis, then leader of the federal NDP party, unexpectedly resigned. Shortly after, a number of prominent feminists associated with the women's wing of the party approached Brown and asked her to run in the forthcoming leadership convention in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Once again, she demonstrated a great deal of reluctance to be considered for this post. Brown's main concerns centered around the considerable responsibilities that such a prestigious position entailed as well as the effect that this could potentially have on her family. In addition, she recognized certain negative factors militating against her candidacy. She had little or no experience of federal politics and could not speak French (a crucial factor in national Canadian politics). More specifically, she was widely perceived by the media as well as many members of the NDP as representing the most left-wing faction of the party. On the other hand, Brown recognized that the leadership contest offered her a real and unique chance to make a significant and lasting impact on the policy practices of the NDP.

Throughout the early months of 1975, Brown traveled throughout Canada bringing her message of equal opportunity and rights for all. In the course of this campaign, she received a great deal of grass-root support from women (considerable numbers of whom were not even affiliated to the NDP). At the close of the leadership convention in July, Brown concluded her speech to the assembled delegates with words that described her vision of a new Canada. The task, she declared, was to become "the government that will build a truly socialist, truly humane society—here in Canada." When the final ballot was counted, Brown had managed to attain a very credible second place finish to the victor Ed Broadbent.

In the aftermath of the convention, Broadbent asked Brown to consider standing as a candidate in the next federal election. Although she was greatly tempted by this offer, she refused, largely because of the imminent provincial election in British Columbia that was called in November 1975. Premier Barrett's policies had eventually managed to alienate a substantial proportion of the feminist movement, but Brown felt that an NDP government was the only real alternative to the opposition, right-wing, Social Credit Party. In that election, however, the NDP suffered a crushing defeat, though Brown was able to retain her seat (although by a greatly reduced majority).

Over the next few years, Brown focused her efforts on preventing the new government from rolling back the progressive legislation enacted by the previous administration. Perhaps her greatest moment in the legislature was the filibuster she initiated to avert the government's closure of the Vancouver Resource Board. At serious cost to her own health, Brown talked for over 13 hours in the assembly in what ultimately proved to be a futile attempt to save one of the most prominent and effective advocacy groups in the province.

Following a redrawing of constituency boundaries, Brown was reelected in the new riding of Burnaby-Edmonds in the provincial election of 1979. During this term of office, she found it increasingly difficult to make any substantial contribution to the legislative process. In the climate of the early 1980s, the emerging ideology of neo-conservativism rendered it extremely hard to advance any kind of progressive cause. For this reason, Brown's interests turned increasingly towards extra-parliamentary activities, in particular, the campaign against apartheid in South Africa. She also became passionately involved in the struggle for nuclear disarmament. Brown traveled widely throughout Canada and abroad, speaking in the cause of peace and international co-existence. She became a founding member of Women for a Meaningful Summit, an international organization dedicated to monitoring meetings of NATO and the superpower disarmament talks between the United States and the Soviet Union. At a meeting in Moscow of the International Women's Conference on Peace, Brown stated that "peace remains the number one priority in my life."

In 1982, when Dave Barrett resigned as leader of the NDP in British Columbia, Brown was asked once again to run for the leadership of the party. This time, however, she refused, principally because she was extremely dispirited by the lack of cohesion and direction in the NDP and the disorganized state of its feminist wing. She considered resigning her seat but was persuaded to stand again in the 1983 election. The new NDP leader, Bob Skelley, did little to reverse the decline in the party's fortunes, and this only served to alienate Brown further from the political process. When another election was called in October 1986, she announced that she no longer wished to be considered for office. After her retirement from parliament, Brown continued to speak and lecture throughout Canada on feminist issues and remained active in the international campaign to promote peace.