Ceremony to Honor Civil Rights Leader
A memorial ceremony will be held Saturday in honor of the late Fred Brown Sr., a cement worker who led local civil rights and organized labor movements in Ventura County in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s.
The ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. at the County Government Center in Ventura, where a tree and plaque will mark Brown’s commitment to ending racism in Ventura County.
“We were crawling in the trenches in terms of trying to get the rights that we so rightfully deserved,” said Fred Jones, who worked alongside Brown as he headed the local chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People from 1948 to 1964.
Jones remembered Brown petitioning local employers to open job opportunities to African Americans at a time when blacks were still relegated to living in certain sections of town, and signs inside many stores along Oxnard Boulevard warned “No Colored Or Dogs Allowed.”
Brown died in February at the age of 81.
Supervisor Susan Lacey said Brown’s memory as a tireless leader of the local NAACP labor union movement deserves a place where residents from around the county can honor him.
“Fred Brown was a great man whose courage and leadership helped break down barriers to equality that existed in our county,” Lacey said in a statement.
Saturday’s ceremony will be held next to the memorial rose garden at the government center, near the center’s Victoria Avenue entry.
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