Author, activist and singer LaTosha Brown has dedicated her career to social justice and creating better opportunities for Black Americans.
Through political empowerment, economic development, leadership development, wealth creation and civil rights, Brown has dedicated her life to the cause.
As an activist and organizer, Brown co-founded the voting rights group Black Voters Matter, which played a major role in the 2017 U.S. Senate special election in Alabama as well as Georgia’s Senate election in 2021.
Born in Selma, Alabama, Brown has always wanted to be a force for good.
“The first time I remember using my voice for good, I was in elementary school and these bullies were messing with this little boy,” she recalled. “The first thought I had was, ‘aw man I’m going to have to scuff up my leather shoes.’ It didn’t matter if they were boys, and I was a little itty-bitty girl. It didn’t matter if they could beat me, everything in me said something was happening to someone and it was wrong and I needed to act on it.”
While attending Auburn University at Montgomery, Brown studied political science and government.
In 1998, Brown ran for the Democratic nomination for the Alabama State Board of Education’s 5th district seat but lost by fewer than 200 votes. In 2002, Brown tried her hand at politics once more, running for the Alabama House of Representatives District 67 seat. She would lose a runoff election by 138 votes.
Determined to make lasting change, Brown never gave up on her dreams to be a positive influence in her community. In 2004, she founded Truth Speaks Consulting; a philanthropy consulting firm based in Atlanta.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Brown founded the Saving Ourselves Coalition organization, which helped bring food, shelter and medical care to Mississippi and Alabama after the devastating storm, but her activism was just getting started.
In 2016, Brown and her friend Cliff Albright founded Black Voters Matter. Then in 2018, Brown founded the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium. Her goal was to create a framework that would increase investments for Black girls and women in the South. The organization announced a 10-year, $100 million initiative to support local organizations in the south that support the empowerment of Black girls and women.
Brown has also used her singing and songwriting to shift the narrative of Black Americans through media, campaigns and nonprofit projects, and it doesn’t seem like she’s slowing down anytime soon.
“I want every single Black person to feel like they have power, to feel like they have some sense of agency and to feel prideful about what they are doing to advance themselves in their own lives,” said Brown.
Check out the latest episode of Black Joy Blazers featuring LaTosha Brown above.
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Black Voters Matter Head To Houston To Educate College Students About Critical Voting Issues
