About Elaine Brown
Brief Bio
- Elaine Brown is a former leader of the Black Panther Party, as Minister of Information then Chairman. She is the author of A Taste of Power and The Condemnation of Little B. A Taste of Power, her autobiography, is slated for film production with Alicia Keys to play Elaine, and, was recently published in the UK and France and as an audiobook by Audible.
- Today, Elaine is CEO of the non-profit organization Oakland & the World Enterprises, Inc. (OAW), dedicated to launching and sustaining for-profit businesses for cooperative ownership by formerly incarcerated and other people facing extreme barriers to economic survival. OAW is the co-developer/owner, with McCormack Baron Salazar, of a 79-unit, 100% affordable housing complex in West Oakland that includes ground floor space for the OAW-sponsored businesses: a neighborhood market, restaurant, fitness center, tech development business and urban farm.
- Elaine was inducted into the Alameda County (California) Women’s Hall of Fame in 2024. In 2025, she received a “Real Estate Deal of the Year” award from and was recognized as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times. In April 2025, the Oakland City Council unanimously passed a resolution to re-name a portion of Campbell Street in West Oakland “Elaine Brown Way.”
- As Executive Director of the Michael Lewis Legal Defense Committee, supporting the legal appeal of Lewis (“Little B”), who, arrested in 1997 in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 13 for a murder he did not commit, was convicted and sentenced as an adult to life in prison, Elaine sustained a campaign for his freedom for over 27 years. On September 27, 2023, Michael, at 40 years old, was released on parole to live in Oakland, California.
- Elaine studied classical piano for many years, including at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, and has recorded two albums of original songs, one for Motown records—which recently re-issued a vinyl of her album, Until We’re Free. Elaine’s papers are archived at Emory University. Elaine is the mother of one daughter, Ericka, and, resides in Oakland, California.
Elaine Brown Books
A Taste of Power
“A stunning picture of a Black woman’s coming of age in America. Put it on the shelf beside The Autobiography of Malcolm X.”
– Kirkus Reviews
Available on 
Narrated by Elaine Brown
The Condemnation of Little B
“The Condemnation of Little B recalls W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk. In 1903, Du Bois mused eloquently on the end of Reconstruction and the agricultural age. Brown’s book arrives in 2002, just as the embers of the civil rights movement have gone out and the powerful industrial age has given way to a high-tech economy with global tentacles. The similarity between these books and the conservative and apathetic times in which they appear is striking. Though the tale of Little B is what will pull in many readers, the most interesting portion of the book is Brown’s criticism of African Americans who have become co-conspirators in the destruction and condemnation of him and other, similar young men.”
-Brian Gilmore, The Washington Post
Elaine Brown's "Seize the Time," 1969: Smithsonian Year of Music Object of the Day, October 5
Elaine Brown Music
Elaine Brown Way
Street Renaming Ceremony at 7th & Campbell in honor of Elaine Brown
- 2025 Outstanding Community Community Project, for The Black Panther–American Society of Civil Engineers, San Francisco
- 2025 “Dang Good” award from East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. (EBALDC)
- 2025 Proclamation by the City of Oakland (California) Renaming Campbell Street “Elaine Brown Way”
- 2025 Most Influential Women in the Bay Area Business Award, San Francisco Business Times
- 2025 Real Estate Deal of the Year Community Impact Award, San Francisco Business Times
- 2024 Inductee, Alameda County (California) Women’s Hall of Fame, Justice Award
- 2024 Vanguard Award, Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center
- 2024 Alameda County (California) Board of Supervisors Commendation, Trailblazing Award for Affordable Housing
- 2023 Recognition by the California State Assembly as a “California Woman Making Herstory”
- 2022 Powerful Women of the Bay Award, as CEO of Oakland & the World Enterprises
- 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award, Boys and Girls Clubs of Oakland (California)
- 2019 Legacy Award, Allen Temple Baptist Church, Annual MLK Jr. Drum Major for Freedom Awardees
- 2017 National Coalition of 100 Black Women of the Bay Area, Pioneer Award
- 2015 Living Legend Award, East Bay Small Business Council
- 2013 Alameda County Board of Supervisors Women’s History Month Pioneer Award
Past Lectures
Elaine Brown at Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island
Elaine Brown: New Age Racism
University of California
Resilience & Revolution:
A Night with Elaine Brown
Additional Lectures
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
California State University, Dominguez Hills, Los Angeles, Monterey, Sonoma
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California
Colorado State University, Fort Collins
Columbia University, New York, New York
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Florida International University, Miami
Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
Mills College, Oakland, California
Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia
Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
Pepperdine University, Malibu, California
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York
Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts
Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia
Stanford University, Stanford, California
State University of New York, Buffalo, Canton, Plattsburgh
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
University of California, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Georgia, Athens
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University of Minnesota, Duluth
University of Nebraska, Omaha
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Oregon, Eugene
University of South Dakota, Vermillion
University of Virginia, Lynchburg
University of Washington, Seattle
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York
Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania
Booking Elaine Brown