17 Facts About Brownie Ledbetter

Mary Brown Williams Ledbetter, better known as Brownie Ledbetter, was a political activist, social justice crusader and lobbyist who was involved in the civil rights, feminist, labor and environmental movements in Arkansas, United States and abroad.

Brownie Ledbetter's mother died in 1947, and her father in 1950 leaving Ledbetter and her three siblings in the care of her aunt and uncle Grainger and Frances Williams.

Brownie Ledbetter attended and graduated from Little Rock Central High School, which would later be the locus of her first involvement in political activism.

From 1950 to 1953 Brownie Ledbetter attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia.

Brownie Ledbetter was married on July 26,1953, to Dr Calvin Ledbetter, Jr.

The couple lived for two years in Germany where Brownie Ledbetter's husband was stationed with the US Army Judge Advocate Corps.

Brownie Ledbetter became politically active around the time the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957, after nine African-American students were barred from entering her alma mater, Little Rock Central High School by a blockade of the Arkansas National Guard under the direction of Governor Orval Faubus.

Brownie Ledbetter joined the work begun by Adolphine Fletcher Terry, Sara Murphy, and Vivion Brewer in the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools, an advocacy group.

In 1981, the panel evolved into the Arkansas Public Policy Panel and Brownie Ledbetter served as its executive director until her retirement in 1999.

Brownie Ledbetter was called to be part of President Jimmy Carter's National Commission on Women and served as an executive board member of the Women's Environmental Development Organization, a group that lobbies the United Nation on women's issues.

Brownie Ledbetter was organizer of the first Planned Parenthood Affiliate and clinic in Arkansas, and she led the campaign to defeat the first ballot effort to prohibit abortion rights for women.

Brownie Ledbetter was involved in several non-governmental international organizations: Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood, WEDO, and US Women Connect.

Brownie Ledbetter acted as an organizer and consultant in many political campaigns.

Brownie Ledbetter was herself a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1968.

Brownie Ledbetter managed the McGovern campaign for the state of Arkansas in 1972.

Brownie Ledbetter died at her home in Little Rock on March 21,2010, six months after she had been diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Brownie Ledbetter began as a concerned volunteer in the struggle to desegregate the schools of Little Rock, and became an accomplished advocate for the rights of Arkansans and people everywhere.