Bob Brown, pastor who worked for racial justice in Lexington schools, has died
The Rev. Bob Brown, a pastor and IBM project manager who helped lead a movement that drew attention to racial disparities in education and other areas of life in Fayette County, died Sunday. He was 82.
“Bob was a strong education advocate,” said P.G. Peeples, president and CEO of the Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County. “He gave his all for the betterment of our community and especially our kids.”
Brown was a former board chairman of the Lexington Housing Authority and was one of the earliest members of the Fayette County Public Schools Equity Council.
He also was part of the African American Education Coalition, which included Peeples, the Rev. C.B. Akins, state Rep. George Brown and the late John Wigginton, Akins said.
“Five of us kind of hung together and tried to make things better in Lexington,” Akins said. “You couldn’t get anything past Bob.”
He said the group insisted that the state stop “hiding the achievement gap” by releasing only composite scores. They also worked to get the police department to address traffic stops targeting Black residents and took on a local bank that decided to disband a branch of its business that had catered to Black churches, Akins said.
“Bob was in the middle of it all,” he said. “We’ve come a long way. It’s because of people like Bob Brown, who stayed the course when it was not popular. ... He was a warrior. If I’m going to go to battle, I want Bob Brown in the trenches with me.”
In 2002, Brown served on a blue ribbon panel that worked to find ways to close the achievement gap in Fayette County Public Schools.
Brown called attention to suspension rates for Black students that were much higher than the rate for white students.
And he called out the need for a new school on the site of the former Bluegrass-Aspendale housing project. As the site was redeveloped, William Wells Brown Elementary School was built.
“Bob Brown would speak truth to power, and when he did, it was based on facts and information and data,” Peeples said. “Bob Brown had a saying about, ‘In God we trust. Everybody else bring data.’”
Brown also helped organize back-to-school rallies where students received free book bags and school supplies, along with a dose of encouragement.
“We want to serve as mentors and motivators to encourage all students to be good learners,” he told former Herald-Leader columnist Merlene Davis in 2003. “We believe in our students and their potential and their ability to grow, and we want to be pathfinders to assist in their learning.”
Brown was a Navy veteran and worked as a project manager at IBM.
He graduated from the old Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in 1959 and later earned a business management degree from Xavier University, said his wife of 60 years, Bertie Brown.
He grew up attending Main Street Baptist Church in Lexington.
“We went there for many years, until he acknowledged his calling to the ministry,” Bertie Brown said.
He went on to pastor Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Lancaster for 23 years and then started New Horizon Missionary Baptist Church in Danville, where he served as pastor for about six years, she said.
After Brown retired from the pastorate, the couple came back to Main Street Baptist and he worked in ministry there, helping the church during lengthy negotiations with the city over parking.
“He filled a big void for us,” said Elder R. Wayne Cornelius. “He had a big, bold voice, but he had a kind heart.”
Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Sept. 11 at Main Street Baptist Church, with visitation beginning at 10 a.m. Burial will be at Camp Nelson National Cemetery. Smith & Smith Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
