Mildred Brown

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Mildred Brown (1915-1989), journalist and newspaper publisher, was a prominent African American civil rights leader in North Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

1 Biography
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Biography

Mildred Brown was born in Alabama in 1915 to a prominent African American family. Through the paper she founded and ran, the Omaha Star, Brown was a widely known and respected civil rights activist and champion of the black community in Omaha.

Brown graduated from Miles Memorial Teachers College in Birmingham, Alabama in 1931. By 1938 she had married S. Edward Gilbert and moved to North Omaha. That year the couple founded the Omaha Star, soon to be the only African American newspaper in Omaha, and the longest running in the city's history.

Brown and Gilbert divorced in 1945, with Mildred taking charge of operations as the "Advertising and General Manager." In the late 1940s Brown became involved with Omaha's DePorres Club, a group of high school students and Creighton University students fighting against racial discrimination in Omaha. Brown volunteered the Star's office for the club after Creighton kicked them off campus.

As a journalist and publisher, Mildred's circle of friends was wide taking her on many travels for business, conventions, social events, and meetings with other publishers of black and white papers. Mildred Brown was the first African American and one of only three women to be inducted into the Omaha Business Hall of Fame.

Browned died in 1989.^[1]