Byron William Brown II (born September 24, 1958) is an American politician who is the current mayor of Buffalo, New York. He has served as Buffalo's 62nd mayor since January 2006, the City's first African-American mayor and longest serving mayor. He previously served Western New York as a member of the New York State Senate and Buffalo Common Council. He is the first African-American politician elected to the New York State Senate to represent a district outside New York City and the first member of any minority race to represent a majority-white New York State Senate district.
Brown was born and raised in Queens, New York. He rose to elected office after serving in a variety of political roles. He began his political career performing as an aide to local representatives in several legislative bodies (Buffalo Common Council, Erie County Legislature and New York State Assembly) and later became involved in a regional political organization. After several roles as a legislative aide, he was appointed to the Erie County cabinet-level Director of Equal Employment Opportunity post.
Early life and education
Brown was raised in Hollis in a duplex his family shared with his grandparents, who were immigrants from the Caribbean island of Montserrat. He grew up on 200th Street between 100th and 104th Avenues and has several relatives still in the area. As a Queens resident, he was a New York Mets and New York Knicks fan.
Brown was a Boy Scout at Hollis Presbyterian Church in Queens and was also active in the Central Queens YMCA (now called Jamaica YMCA). Brown attended Public School 134 in Hollis, junior high school PS 109, and August Martin High School, where he played the trumpet in the high school band. Brown and his sister, Andrea, were the first generation in his family to attend college.
After graduating from August Martin High School, Brown attended Buffalo State College. He played a year of Junior Varsity basketball as a guard. While he had considered a potential medical career, Brown graduated in 1983 with a dual Bachelor of Arts in political science and journalism. He subsequently completed a certificate program for senior executives in state and local government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Early career
After college, Brown worked for Bristol-Myers for a year as a regional sales representative. Brown quit after a short tenure and took the New York State Troopers exam before becoming Chief of staff for Buffalo Common Council President George Arthur for two years. He then spent two years as an aide to Erie County Legislator Roger Blackwell (later Erie County Legislature Chairman). Then, he worked for two years under Arthur Eve, the Deputy Speaker of the New York State Assembly. Subsequently, he served eight years as director of the Erie County division of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Erie County Executive Dennis Gorski. He resigned his directorship in July 1993 to run for public office.
During his early career, Brown also became a member of Grassroots, a political organization that was founded in 1986 by a group of block club leaders. Brown eventually served as a vice president of the organization.
Brown was recognized in the November 1989 issue of Ebony magazine as one of the "30 Leaders of the Future" with a caption that read "Byron Brown chosen for leadership skills." The Buffalo Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1991 honored him with the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for community service. In 1993 he was selected by Business First for its "40 Under Forty Honor Roll". He was awarded the Infinity Broadcasting/WBLK 2001 "Voice of Power Award" and the 2004 "Citizen of the Year" award. He also received the "Political Impact Award" from the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in 2001.
In 1992, Brown was a delegate to the 1992 Democratic National Convention from the New York's 33rd congressional district. His vote was originally pledged to Bob Kerrey for the Democratic presidential nomination, but Brown transferred his support to then-Governor Bill Clinton after Kerrey bowed out of the 1992 Democratic Primary campaign on March 5, 1992. In 1993, Brown was invited to attend Bill Clinton's Presidential Inauguration.