Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. (born March 20, 1934) is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served over thirty years in the California State Assembly, spending fifteen years as its Speaker, and afterward served as mayor of San Francisco, the first African American to do so. 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. The San Francisco Chr...
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Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. (born March 20, 1934) is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served over thirty years in the California State Assembly, spending fifteen years as its Speaker, and afterward served as mayor of San Francisco, the first African American to do so. 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. 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'...
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