In 1921, at the height of the Ku Klux Klan's power in Ohio, Brown supported federal civil rights legislation to stop the lynching of African-Americans.

Let me say, here and now, that if democracy is to continue to live throughout the world, and here in our beloved America, those of us who have the ability and power to do so must see to it that the full rights of the weak and defenseless are safeguarded against the violence and the intolerance of the strong and the mighty.In 1947, during floor debate involving Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (D–NY) and John E. Rankin (D–MS), Brown forced a rule change from Speaker Joseph W. Martin Jr. (R–MA) to prohibit racially offensive language from being used on the House floor.

However, in March 1941 he voted in favor of providing increased military aid to the United Kingdom during that country's war against Nazi Germany.

[10] Following World War II, Brown warned against the continuation and expansion of foreign aid programs that were meant to be temporary.

When Harry S. Truman became president, Brown opposed his Fair Deal, viewing it as corrupt cronyism through the expansion of federal bureaucracy.

In the 1960s, he worked with its chairman, the Democrat Howard W. Smith of Virginia, to block expansive federal legislation sought by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Smith was a senior member of the Southern Bloc, which was established by white Democrats at the turn of the 20th century, when the former Confederate States disfranchised blacks.

However, near the end of his life, Brown convinced the segregationist Smith to allow landmark civil rights legislation to reach the House floor for a vote.