The Brown Sisters

If you are interesting in having Linda and Cheryl come speak at your event, contact the Brown Foundation at 785-235-3939.  Linda and Cheryl can be booked together or Cheryl can be booked separately.  

View their biographies below to see what would fit your needs.

PRESENTING
THE BROWN SISTERS

Linda and Cheryl are two of the three daughters of the late Rev. Oliver L. Brown, who along with twelve other parents led by the NAACP, filed suit against the local Board of Education on behalf of their children.  Upon appeal to the United States Supreme Court the Topeka case became the lead case among five legal challenges from under consideration by the court.  Oliver Brown died in 1961 before knowing the impact of this landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, which bears his name – Oliver L. Brown et. al. vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, et. al.

Linda has been a Head Start teacher and at one time taught private music lessons in piano.  She is currently Program Associate with The Brown Foundation and serves as a member of the music department at one of the Methodist churches in Topeka, where she has chaired several project committees.  Cheryl has been a university guest lecturer, a school teacher and guidance counselor, a state educational administrator, a federal legislative advocate, and is President of The Brown Foundation.  She has authored publications and essays about Brown v. Board of Education and has been a member of numerous professional and civic organizations, and presently serves on several local, state and national boards.  She is past chair of Women Work, a national network that represented some 15 million women nationwide who were seeking career assistance and employment in non-traditional fields.

In 1988 along with her co-worker, Jerry Jones, Cheryl established The Brown Foundation.  In 1990 the Foundation worked with the United States Congress to develop legislation, resulting in the establishment of the Brown v. Board of Education National Park.  The Park opened in 2004 in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Brown decision.  It is located in Topeka at the site of one of the four formerly segregated African American schools.  This was also the elementary school attended by their mother, two of the Brown sisters, Linda and Terry, their children, and prior to the school’s closing in 1975, Cheryl began her teaching career there in 1972.

The Brown sisters have extensive public speaking experience, which includes lectures on more than 300 college campuses and for various national organizations and community groups.  They have received numerous awards in recognition of the Brown decision and have appeared in televised and newspaper interviews about this historic case.

Download this biography in a pdf format here.

Read a biography of Cheryl Brown Henderson here.