Oscar Brown, Sr.

Oscar Brown Sr. (December 22, 1895 – October 1, 1990) was a prominent Chicago businessman, lawyer and community activist. He was the father of Oscar Brown Jr.

Biography Oscar Cicero Brown was born near Camden, Arkansas, on December 22, 1895. In 1916, he graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., with degrees in commerce and law. He served in the military during World War I.

In 1929, he founded the law firm of Brown, Brown, Cyrus and Green in Chicago. Gradually, he turned his attention away from law and started the Oscar C. Brown Real Estate Corp. and spent a good part of his life on issues relating to real estate, either as a developer, an activist or as an administrator.

In 1944, Brown served as president of the Chicago branch of the NAACP. A major focus of his efforts there were to protest housing segregation and to improve police enforcement in predominantly African-American neighborhoods. He became the first African American appointed to the real estate planning committee of the Illinois Department of Registration and Education in 1964.