The Harold K. Brown Papers (1956-2000) document Brown's participation in the local Civil Rights Movement, his dedication to community economic development, and his professional life, with a heavy emphasis on the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Brown's role in the School Integration Task Force, and his involvement with the Black Economic Development Task Force. Highlights include the Congress of Racial Equality's actions against the employment practices of the San Diego Zoo, SDG&E, Montgomery Ward, and Bank of America. Filed alphabetically by folder description, the collection consists of correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, slides, reel-to-reels of the "Viewpoint" program on KSDO Radio, and photographs.  In addition, the collection's extensive newspaper clippings include articles from and full issues of The Voice, The San Diego Light House, the San Diego Monitor, and Logan Heights' Independent.  The majority of materials date from 1963 to 1966, and the mid-1990s.

Born in 1934 and the youngest of seven siblings, Harold Brown, also known as Hal, grew up in York, Pennsylvania, a small working-class town. After graduating high school, Brown attended Penn State, but left after his first semester in order to play minor league baseball with the St. Louis Browns. After sustaining an injury, Brown moved to San Diego in 1953 to attend San Diego State College on a basketball scholarship. His studies were interrupted by two years of military service, but he returned to SDSC and finished his degree in physical education and speech. Upon graduating in 1961, Brown began a six-year teaching career at a local junior high school. During this time, he also became extremely active in the San Diego Civil Rights Movement. Brown was a member of the El Cajon Valley Open Housing Committee, which sought to integrate neighborhoods in El Cajon and La Mesa. In addition, he helped to found and chair the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). This organization fought unfair employment practices, and organized civil rights marches, demonstrations and sit-ins across San Diego.

4.59 Linear Feet

The copyright interests in these materials have been transferred to San Diego State University. Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections is such that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine.  Requests for permission to publish must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.

This collection is open for research.