Charlotte L. Brown (?-?)

January 18, 2007 
/ Contributed By: Turkiya Lowe

Rincon Hill

Rincon Hill

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Charlotte L. Brown is best known as a civil rights activist in San Francisco, California in the 1860s.  Brown was the daughter of James E. and Charlotte Brown and sister to Margaret Ann.  James Brown was also a well regarded civil rights activist in Gold Rush Era California.  Charlotte Brown’s mother, for whom she was named, was a free, black seamstress who purchased her husband James’ freedom before they moved to San Francisco, California during the 1840s.

Charlotte L. Brown was the plaintiff in one of the most important early California civil rights campaigns.  On April 17, 1863, Brown was forcibly removed from a horse-drawn streetcar in San Francisco. Her father, who ran a livery stable in San Francisco, brought suit on her behalf against the Omnibus Railroad Company.  The successful suit resulted in $5,000 in damages awarded as well as the right of blacks to ride the street cars.  The Charlotte Brown case was one of a few civil rights cases brought by prominent free blacks in California to protest discrimination on public transportation.  Ms. Brown later married prominent free black civil rights activist, James Riker.

Author Profile

Dr. Turkiya L. Lowe serves as National Park Service (NPS) Supervisory Historian and Deputy Federal Preservation Officer, managing the NPS Park History Program in Washington, D.C. She holds a doctorate and master’s degree in 20th century U.S. and African American history from the University of Washington as well as a Bachelor’s degree in history from Howard University.

National preservation programs under her administration include: the African American Civil Rights Network, the American World War II Heritage Cities program, the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act program, and the Maritime Heritage Grant program as well as the NPS’s administrative and oral history programs.

Dr. Lowe served as NPS Southeast Regional (SER) Historian and manager for the SER Cultural Resource Research and Science Branch, and also had the privilege to serve as Acting Superintendent of Cane River Creole National Historical Park. She also worked in the Region’s Office of Interpretation and Education, where she was the Regional Program Manager for the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program assisting communities and stewards to tell the stories of Black resistance to enslavement through escape and flight.

Dr. Lowe also has worked as national Program Manager for the Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program and a staff reviewer for the National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks programs. One of her favorite projects was analyzing and assisting with increased nomination and designation of historic sites associated with the histories of people of color and other underrepresented communities through the 2006 Preserve America Summit.

Dr. Lowe consulted as a Principal Investigator on historic preservation projects in collaboration with the NPS Seattle Support Office, investigating the history of civil rights in the Pacific Northwest and identifying historic properties for potential preservation and interpretation efforts.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Lowe, T. (2007, January 18). Charlotte L. Brown (?-?). BlackPast.org. https://new.blackpast.org/african-american-history/brown-charlotte-l/

Source of the Author's Information:

Charlotte L. Brown et al case (San Francisco: California Historical Society, 1866). Delilah L. Beasley, The Negro Trail Blazers of California (Los Angeles: Times Mirror Publishing and Binding House, 1919), p. 65.  Marc Primus, ed. Monographs of Blacks in the West: Number 1, Manuscript Series (San Francisco: San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society, Inc., 1976), pp. 120-21

Further Reading