Robert Lofton Brown (January 30, 1950 – December 8, 2011) was a Democratic member of the

Georgia State Senate The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, in the U.S. state of Georgia. The Georgia State Senate and the lower house of the General Assembly, the Georgia House of Representatives, comprise the bicameral leg ...

, representing the 26th District. He was first elected in an August 1991 special election and held office until June 2011. He was elected by his fellow Democrats as minority leader in 2004 and held that position until he resigned to run for mayor of

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Situated near the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is southeast of Atlanta and near the ...

Life and career

Brown was born in

Greenville, Georgia Greenville is a city in and the county seat of Meriwether County, Georgia, United States. The population was 794 at the 2020 census, down from 876 in 2010. The city is located southwest of Atlanta and is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area ( ...

. He attended

Mercer University Mercer University is a Private university, private Research university, research university in Macon, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the s ...

in Macon, Georgia, earning his B.S. in Sociology and Christianity. During the 1970s and 80s, Brown was involved in education policy reform for Georgia, South Carolina, and the southeastern United States. From 1971 to 1980, Brown served as a program associate and then as associate regional director of the

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends ('' Quaker)-founded'' organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by ...

. Then, from 1980 to 1985, Brown served as Director of the Southeastern Public Education Program (SEPEP). Brown was first elected in 1984 to the Bibb County Schools Board of Education. On June 14, 1991, Brown resigned from his position on the Board to campaign for the

. Brown was the first Black person to represent Bibb County in the Senate since

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

, and he served in the Georgia State Senate for 20 years. Throughout his career, Brown was an advocate for education and the arts, such as with his advocacy for the preservation of the historic

Douglass Theatre The Douglass Theatre is a theatre in Macon, Georgia. It was founded in 1921 by Charles Henry Douglass, an African-American entrepreneur who was an established theatre developer well versed in the vaudeville and entertainment business. Ben Stein o ...

in downtown Macon, Georgia.

Death

On December 8, 2011, Brown's body was found in his Macon home. The local coroner revealed that he died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

References

External links

* *''Follow the Money'' - Robert Brown
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campaign contributions 1950 births 2011 deaths African-American state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state) American politicians who died by suicide Democratic Party Georgia (U.S. state) state senators People from Greenville, Georgia Politicians from Macon, Georgia Suicides by firearm in Georgia (U.S. state) 21st-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American politicians 21st-century members of the Georgia General Assembly {{GeorgiaUS-politician-stub