What You Need to Know About Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III

Wed, 14 Oct 2015 05:30:23 -0400
activism, activist, baltimore, critical-social-justice, csj365, what-you-need-to-know

As we count down to the Critical Social Justice: Baltimore 365 keynote event “Baltimore in Action: Always Rising” on Tuesday, October 20th, we’ll be profiling all of our keynote speakers in our “What You Need to Know” series.

Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III

Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III

Rev. Dr. Heber M. Brown, III is the Senior Pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore and a Team Leader of Baltimore United for Change – a coalition of activists and organizations working for social justice. As a clergy-activist, Dr. Brown has demonstrated a deep commitment to social justice. He has traveled throughout the U.S. and world speaking about poverty, racism, white privilege, the prison industrial complex, worker’s rights, environmental justice, sexism, food sovereignty and foreign policy. He is also a critical community organizer in Baltimore who is actively involved in grassroots and legislative advocacy. Between 2009 and 2013, he was a central figure in the campaign to halt the construction of a $100 million dollar youth jail in Baltimore.

“… the state is ready to spend millions of dollars to build a world-class prison, but we don’t have world-class schools and we don’t have world-class recreation centers, we don’t have world-class job opportunities, 21st-century job opportunities for our young people.. †

Dr. Brown is also committed to mentoring the next generation of change makers in Baltimore City. He is the Founding Director of Orita’s Cross Freedom School – a multi-site program which embraces African Heritage and Black History. More recently he also launched the Black Church Food Security Network which links Black Churches and Black Farmers in partnership to create a community-controlled, alternative food system based on self-sufficiency, food justice and food sovereignty.

“…normal prior to Freddie Gray [uprising] was unaccepatale, was inhumane, was cruel, as unjust. So we cannot go back to a normal. We have to recreate a new normal.” †

For more on Heber Brown, check out:

His about.me page

Follow him on Twitter and check out his YouTube channel

From the Marc Steiner Show – Sound Bites: The Black Church Food Security Network