Brown (November 14, 1841 – March 28, 1913) was a politician and civil rights activist in the American city of Cleveland, Ohio.

[4] As a steamboatman, Brown claimed friendship with Mark Twain,[3] and was said to be a survivor of the famous 1858 explosion of the steamboat Pennsylvania.

Many other employees of McClelland quit when Brown joined the shop, unwilling to work with a black person.

When the US Civil War began, Brown moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to work on steamboats.

He then became clerk of the City Boards of Equalization and Revision,[4] and finally letter-carrier for the post office in August 1881,[7] a position he held until being elected in 1885.

[4] He was also involved with black social movements, taking part in numerous state and national conventions of colored people at least as early as 1884.

[5] In 1899 he went to Washington, D.C., to get appointment to federal civil service positions and in 1890 he was made United States Customs Inspector at Cleveland.

[11] He held a number of other appointments including deputy in the state insurance commissioner's office.

He noted in an 1886 letter to the black newspaper, the New York Freeman, that he opposed segregated labor unions.

[12] Brown was a prominent Mason in Ohio[4] and was a Grand Master of Prince Hall Masonry.