This is the first comprehensive biography of Willie Brown, one of California's most enduring and controversial politicians. Audacious, driven, talented--Brown has dominated California politics longer and more completely than any other public figure.

James Richardson, a senior writer for The Sacramento Bee, takes us from Brown's childhood, through his years as Speaker of the State Assembly, to his election as San Francisco's mayor. Along the way we get a riveting, behind-the-scenes account of three decades of California politics.

Review
"One of California's most important public figures in the past thirty years and among the most influential black politicians in American history. The recital of Brown's amazing sayings and doings is reason enough to read Willie Brown, [a] vividly detailed and scrupulously fair-minded biography." -- David L. Kirp, The Nation

"Richardson's story is not only of Brown, but of the modern political transformation of California. . . . By any measure Willie Brown is an extraordinary and consequential politician. And in the sterile landscapes at the end of our century, he's unique." -- John Balzar, Los Angeles Times

"Richardson . . . suggests that Brown may be 'the last political showman of the 20th century.' . . . [Brown] has become for San Francisco what Jimmy Walker, before his fall, once was to New York. He has energized a glamorous city governed too long by earnest bumblers." -- The Washington Post

Read Willie Brown: A Biography Online

ONLINE HTML EDITION.

Paperback: 282 pages
Author: James Richardson
Publisher: University of California Press (November 28, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0520213157
ISBN-13: 978-0520213159

CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
PART I—  EAST TEXAS:  1934–1951
  • Chapter One—  Sodom
  • Chapter Two—  Lewis and Minnie
  • Chapter Three—  Anna Lee
  • Chapter Four—  Whitecapping

PART II—  SAN FRANCISCO:  1951–1964
  • Chapter Five—  The Fillmore
  • Chapter Six—  Burton
  • Chapter Seven—  Jones United Methodist Church
  • Chapter Eight—  Forest Knolls
  • Chapter Nine—  The Gaffney Triangle

PART III—  SACRAMENTO:  1965–1980
  • Chapter Ten—  Unruh
  • Chapter Eleven—  Rock the Boat!
  • Chapter Twelve—  Mice Milk
  • Chapter Thirteen—  RFK
  • Chapter Fourteen—  Deadlock
  • Chapter Fifteen—  Mr. Chairman
  • Chapter Sixteen—  Give Me Back My Delegation!
  • Chapter Seventeen—  Oblivion
  • Chapter Eighteen—  The Edge of Despair
  • Chapter Nineteen—  The Play for Power

ILLUSTRATIONS

PART IV—  MR. SPEAKER:  1980–1995
  • Chapter Twenty—  Drawing Lines
  • Chapter Twenty-One—  Deukmejian
  • Chapter Twenty-Two—  Willie Brown Inc.
  • Chapter Twenty-Three—  The Gang of Five
  • Chapter Twenty-Four—  The Ends of Power
  • Chapter Twenty-Five—  Hometown Son
    EPILOGUE:  DA MAYOR

APPENDIX ONE—  STATEMENT BY WILLIE L. BROWN JR. TO THE CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON CAMPUS DISTURBANCES, MAY 1969
APPENDIX TWO—  SPEECH BY WILLIE L. BROWN JR. TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, JULY 10, 1972
Notes
AUTHOR'S NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

About Willie Brown
Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. (born March 20, 1934) served over thirty years in the California State Assembly, fifteen years as its Speaker, and afterwards as the only African-American mayor of San Francisco. Under current California term limit law, no Speaker of the California State Assembly will ever have a longer tenure than Brown's record 15 years.[1] Brown is a member of the Democratic Party. The San Francisco Chronicle called Brown “one of San Francisco’s most notable mayors” that had “celebrity beyond the city’s boundaries.”

Brown was born in Mineola, Texas and attended a segregated high school. He moved to San Francisco in 1951, attending San Francisco State, graduating in 1955 with a degree in political science. Brown earned a J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1958. He spent several years in private practice before gaining election in his second attempt to the California Assembly in 1964.

Brown became the Democrats' whip in 1969 and Speaker in 1980. He was known for his ability to manage people and maintain party discipline. According to The New York Times, Brown became one of the country's most powerful state legislators.[3] Brown maintained control of the majority Republican Assembly in 1994 and 1995 by gaining the vote of several Republicans.

Brown served as San Francisco mayor from January 8, 1996 until January 8, 2004. His tenure as mayor is marked by a significant increase in real estate development, public works, city beautification, and other large-scale city projects. He presided over the dot-com era at a time when San Francisco's economy was rapidly expanding.

Brown presided over the city’s most diverse administration with more Asian Americans, women, Latinos, gays, and African Americans than his predecessors. He increased San Francisco's funding of MUNI by tens of millions of dollars. He ended San Francisco's policy of punishing people for feeding the homeless.

Largely as a reaction against Brown, San Franciscans approved "district elections" to choose its Board of Supervisors by neighborhood rather than in an at-large vote. The Board opposed Brown's agenda and rolled back some of his initiatives, in particular office and housing development. Brown was restricted by term limits from running for mayor and was succeeded by a political protege, fellow Democrat Gavin Newsom.

After being "termed out" of the mayor's office, Brown officially retired from politics, although he is often associated with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. and participates in fundraising and advising other politicians. (Wikipedia.org)

About the Author
James Richardson is a former senior writer for The Sacramento Bee who has covered Willie Brown and the California Legislature for the past decade. Currently he is Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley.

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