Democrats Elect First Black Chairman

Ron Brown was elected the first black chairman of the Democratic National Committee today, and the former aide to Jesse Jackson promptly urged his party to unite behind its traditional values.

“Only a few months ago, our friends in the press said this contest would leave us divided and shattered,” Brown told hundreds of committee colleagues who elected him by acclamation at a downtown hotel. “Instead, we stand here today shoulder to shoulder and arm to arm.

“There is no need to dwell on, but we cannot ignore, the history of this moment,” he acknowledged. “In choosing the first American of African descent to lead one of America’s major political parties, you have made history.”

Nevertheless, he insisted, the election does not signal a rejection of the party’s more centrist elements and does not mean that the chairman is tied down to the most liberal Jackson faction.

“I accept this responsibility beholden to no individual, afraid of no faction, and pledged to no institution except the Democratic Party and our members,” the 47-year-old lawyer assured his audience.

Brown, who served as deputy chairman from 1982 to 1985, was assured of the top spot last month when four other men dropped out of what had been foreseen as a bitter battle to succeed retiring Chairman Paul G. Kirk.