It took a chance encounter with a little girl who was begging for a quarter. Oral Lee Brown bent over the little girl but could find no change in her purse. So, she took her to the corner store to buy her a treat. But instead of candy, the girl asked for bread and sliced bologna. Taken aback, Brown purchased the food, then asked, "Where's your mother? Do you go to school?" The little girl shyly replied, "Some time." Then, she skampered off toward her home. Brown never saw her again.

The meeting bothered Brown so much over the next few weeks that she couldn't shake the feeling that it was up to her to do something for some of the struggling kids of her community. Brown, a successful REALTOR, had done well in East Oakland, an economically mixed neighborhood, with some good areas and some bad areas. Not surprisingly, the areas with lower incomes have more kids at risk. It was those children she decided to help.

So Brown picked a classroom of first-graders to sponsor at Brookfield Elementary, and proposed a plan of action to its surprised principal, Yolanda Peeks. With the school's support, Brown promised the class,"Stay in school and I'll see you through college."

"I almost fell through the floor," said Peeks, now the school district's associate superintendent for curriculum. "I could not keep up with the ways she wanted to work with them. Tutoring, donations of encyclopedias, books, interacting with them, field trips, all kinds of ways to keep them inspired and feeling positive about school."

One student, Jeffrey Toney, remembers,"She started being like a second mom. If I needed some clothes or something, she'd give me some money to get some clothes. If I just came to her and told her I was hungry, she'd give me something to eat."

That was in 1987. Today, twelve years later, Brown kept her promise. Nineteen of the original first grade class members are in college today, courtesy of Brown.

How did she do it? Day-by-day commitment. Monthly meetings with parents and the kids. Getting to know the kids at lunchtime on the school playground. She set aside $10,000 a year in trusts. She also holds an annual fundraiser. Today the fund holds about $183,000, and Brown hopes to add another $275,000 to see the kids through all four years of college.

Oral Lee Brown's commitment to at-risk children has lasted longer than most Realtors stay in business. Longer than most people's marriages. In fact, it's still going strong. She become the den mother, college recruiter, career counselor, and all-round second mother to a small herd of students. Last spring, she attended eight senior graduations.

"I cried until I didn't have no more tears," said Brown.

Last week, Brown was not on the playground, or visiting one of "her children" at college. She was in Washington being honored by the U.S. Government, along with 11 other private citizens who have made a difference in education for the nation's children. She received the John Stanford Education Hero award, commemorating her 12 years of monthly parent meetings, student rallies, and getting-to-know-you lunches on the school playgrounds.

"They had a reception for us and a breakfast, and we went to the White House," says Brown. She didn't get to meet President Clinton, though. "He was out of town, I had met him last year." Brown had traveled to Washington as a representative of the City of Oakland's Revitalization for Communities.

But her real legacy isn't award or community recognition. It is in the attitude of students like Tomey, who is enrolled at Columbia College in Chicago. "I want to own my own business," he says, "and I want to help some kids like Mrs. Brown."

"This is harder than first grade. They have four years to go," explains Brown. "The kids are in different schols and every child's need is different. This is the first time they have been away from home. I have to encourage them, and it's been a difficult semester for them. "They have to wake themselves and do everything on their own."

Once a week, the students call to touch base, sometimes with tears of loneliness and self-doubt, other times with joyful news. One student, LaTasha Hunter, far from home at Alcorn State University in Mississippi called last week and told Brown that she had made the dean's list.

"It's one thing to get them into college and another to get them out," says a resolved Brown. "I am asking for prayers that these kids can make it through four years of college."

Brown's work is far from over, she says. "I still have my hands full."

Editor's note: If you would like to make a contribution to the Oral Lee Brown Foundation, write to Jo Ann Baker, president, 9901 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, California, 94605 or call 510-430-3041.

Published: November 29, 1999

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

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