Ethelred Brown

Egbert Ethelred Brown (11 July 1875 – 17 February 1956) was a Jamaican-born American Unitarian minister. He founded a Unitarian church in Harlem, and became a leading voice in promoting the independence of Caribbean nations and liberal religion during the Harlem Renaissance.

Early life Egbert Ethelred Brown was born in Falmouth, Jamaica in 1875, the eldest of five children born to James Alexander and Florence Adelaide Brown. and chaired the British Jamaican Benevolent Association. He was also vice-president of the Federation of Jamaican Organizations.

Death and legacy Despite struggling for many years with Unitarian leadership, and suffering financially for much of his life, at 65, Brown became eligible for a pension. This he received until his death in 1956. Writing in 2008, Juan M. Floyd-Thomas wrote of Brown and his church that:From its humble beginnings in 1920 until its dissolution in 1956, the HUC provided all interested parties in Harlem with an extraordinary venue in which to engage in open debate, social activism, and spiritual awakening through a radical brand of Black Christianity deeply infused with humanist principles. Brown's papers are held today by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, at the New York Public Library, which writes:Egbert Ethelred Brown maintained a forum for debate and a social and spiritual gathering place for Afro-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans for more than thirty years; through the Harlem Renaissance, the Depression, World War II and the early 1950's. Among his accomplishments, he endorsed the politicization of his community and interdenominational harmony.