Willie Brown

Overcoming Adversity

When Willie Brown was growing up in the 1940s, the African-Americans of rural East Texas lived in poverty. The daily humiliations of segregation were enforced by the constant threat of violence. In the summer of 1951, a 17 year-old Willie Brown left the world he knew and boarded a train for San Francisco with all his worldly belongings packed in a single cardboard suitcase. In California, Willie Brown would become a successful attorney, and a political figure with national influence. For an unprecedented 15 years he dominated state government as Speaker of the Assembly. When his service in the Assembly was done, he returned to San Francisco to serve as mayor of the city that had given him the opportunity to realize his dreams. Willie Brown's genius for political strategy has made him a legend among political insiders, while his fiery oratory, flamboyant lifestyle and exuberant personality made him a favorite with the voters of San Francisco for nearly 40 years. As mayor of his adopted city from 1995 to 2003, he became one of the nation's most prominent and passionate spokesmen for the causes of urban America. Since leaving office, he has written a daily newspaper column for the San Francisco Chronicle, hosted a daily radio program in San Francisco, and is a regular commentator on the national cable news network MSNBC. In another vein, he has founded the Willie Brown Institute on Politics and Public Service, an independent, non-profit forum for non-partisan education, debate and discussion of public policy issues. He has shared the lessons of his life -- in and out of politics -- in his 2008 autobiography, Basic Brown. This podcast was recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1996 Summit in Sun Valley, Idaho.