Owensboro' Richard Brown named to KY Civil Rights Hall of Fame | News

The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights today inducted 14 new members to the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame including an Owensboro man.

Richard Brown is a former member of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights representing the Second District. He helped settle many cases involving discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations and financial transactions. He has been a longtime activist for civil and human rights in Owensboro since the early 1960s.

A local and statewide leader of the NAACP, he used his influence to calm racial tensions after a riot in 1968 caused police to heavily patrol black neighborhoods. He fought for more hiring of minorities in Owensboro city government, which resulted in the hiring of the city’s first black firefighter in 1971. Mr. Brown and the NAACP addressed threats and racist protests toward black coal miners in Western Kentucky. He helped 30,000 Owensboro residents resist a march of the Ku Klux Klan by wearing yellow ribbons that indicated their city stood for unity rather than division. Mr. Brown helped the Daviess County Board of Education recruit minority teachers and organized scholarships and field trips for area youth.

The honors took place in front of a crowd of about 600 at the 2012 Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame Inductions Ceremony and Celebration.

The honorees were selected by a volunteer panel of independent judges representing several regions in the state. The judges individually made their selections for inductees. An independent accountant tallied all of the judges’ scores to determine the identity of those inductees announced today by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. The state Human Rights Commission established the Hall of Fame in 2000 and has since held periodic inductions.