LaTosha Brown

LaTosha Brown is an American community organizer, political strategist, and consultant. She is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter,[1] a voting rights group first noted for its work on the 2017 US Senate special election.[2] Her focus is on issues related to political empowerment, social justice, economic development, leadership development, wealth creation and civil rights.

Early life and education

Brown was born to a farming family in Selma, Alabama[3] and attended Selma High School. She studied political science and government at Auburn University at Montgomery.[4]

Career

Brown ran for the 5th District seat on the Alabama State Board of Education in 1998. She lost to Willie Paul by 216 votes. After certification of the results, she learned that a county sheriff had found 800 uncounted ballots in a safe.[5] In 2002, she ran for the Alabama House of Representatives in District 67. She lost by 138 votes in the runoff and called a press conference where she presented evidence of voting irregularities.[6]

In 2004, Brown founded the Atlanta-based firm TruthSpeaks Consulting.

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Brown founded the disaster relief organization Saving OurSelves Coalition and the Gulf Coast Fund Advisory Group. She was appointed director of the Gulf Coast Fund in June 2010. Brown received a Champions of Change award from the Obama White House in 2010 for her work with the organization helping communities rebuild following Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[7]

In 2014 Brown was made project director of Grantmakers for Southern Progress, a working group of the Neighborhood Funders Group.[8]

Brown co-founded the Black Voters Matter Fund and the Black Voters Matter with Cliff Albright in 2016.[9] Following the group's support of Doug Jones' successful candidacy for Senate in the 2017 special election in Alabama, Black Voters Matter joined a coalition of Black women's groups working to get out the vote in 2018.[10] The organization leased a bus that was used to travel through Southern states encouraging people to vote.[11] Along with Stacey Abrams, Brown is credited with fueling record Black voter turnout in both Georgia US Senate special election runoffs won by Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. [12]

Brown is a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics.[13] She has received national recognition[14][15] for her education and political organizing work.[2][16] Her approach to community organizing is to inspire and enlist participants by putting their vision for their town at the center of her work, and to support existing grassroots infrastructure.[2] Black Voters Matter's work on the 2020 election began long before the election itself, in 2016 as their vehicles drove to local communities for events and rallies to "restore voters faith in democracy."[17]

Brown's work recognizes the immense conservative power base in the American South and focuses on shifting that power by fighting voter suppression and enlisting Black voters' support,[18] and the ways that voter suppression under the Trump administration have backfired.[19] Brown also emphasizes the importance of lifting up Black girls from a young age.[20]

Brown has twice written for the New York Times opinion page: "Georgia Put a Polling Place Near a Nursing Home" appeared in October 2020 during the run-up to the 2020 presidential election,[21] and "How to Turn a Person into a Voter" ran in October 2018.[22] Brown's work is also cited in Nsé Ufot's "Black Voters are Key Witnesses to Crimes Against Democracy" op-ed.[23]

Brown is also a singer-songwriter.

References
  1. "Black Voters Matter Fund co-founder Latosha Brown weighs in on voter intimidation". CBS News. October 27, 2020. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  2. Danney, Micah (August 24, 2020). "LaTosha Brown's Alabama roots inspired the work she's doing for Black voters". Alabama Political Reporter. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  3. Fouriezos, Nick (June 17, 2020). "The Soulful Singer Making Sure Black Voters Matter". OZY. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  4. "Brown Salaam won't push religion". The Selma Times‑Journal. June 23, 2002. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  5. Connley, Courtney (November 6, 2020). "How Stacey Abrams, LaTosha Brown and other Black women changed the course of the 2020 election". CNBC. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  6. "Brown cites alleged voter irregularities". The Selma Times‑Journal. July 19, 2002. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  7. "Champions of Change: LaTosha Brown". The White House. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  8. "NFG Announces LaTosha Brown as Project Director for Grantmakers for Southern Progress". Neighborhood Funders Group. December 1, 2014. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  9. Epstein, Rachel (November 10, 2020). "LaTosha Brown Says a New South Is Rising". Marie Claire. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  10. Berry, Deborah Barfield (July 9, 2018). "Black women's groups step up efforts to energize African American voters in the South". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  11. Moser, Bob (October 10, 2018). "The Fearless Rise of the Black Southern Progressive". The New Republic. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  12. Evelyn, Kenya (January 7, 2021). "How Black voters lifted Georgia Democrats to Senate runoff victories". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  13. "LaTosha Brown". The Institute of Politics at Harvard University. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  14. Medina, Jennifer (February 11, 2020). "How the Founder of Black Voters Matter Thinks About Bloomberg". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  15. Epstein, Reid J.; Medina, Jennifer; Corasaniti, Nick (June 3, 2020). "Historic Wins for Women of Color as Nation Protests Systemic Racism". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  16. della Cava, Marco (July 25, 2020). "Activists working in John Lewis' shadow warn about voter suppression ahead of November vote". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  17. Alter, Charlotte (September 18, 2020). "How Black Political Organizers Shored Up the Democratic Base". Time. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  18. Craven, Julia (October 7, 2020). "The South Runs the Country". Slate.
  19. "LaTosha Brown: Trump's voter suppression efforts have backfired on GOP". MSNBC. October 19, 2020. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  20. Brown, LaTosha (July 9, 2020). "Reimagining An America That Uplifts Black Girls". Essence. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  21. Albright, Cliff; Brown, LaTosha (June 16, 2020). "Georgia Put a Polling Place Near a Nursing Home". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  22. Brown, LaTosha; Albright, Cliff (October 27, 2018). "How to Turn a Person Into a Voter (Published 2018)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  23. Ufot, Nsé (May 19, 2020). "Black Voters Are Key Witnesses to Crimes Against Democracy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
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