page_title: Ron Brown
section_title: Rise in the Democratic Party
hierarchical_section_title: Ron Brown / Rise in the Democratic Party
context_page_description: Ronald Harmon Brown was an American politician. He served as the United States Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President Bill Clinton. Prior to this he was chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He was the first African American to hold these positions. He was killed, along with 34 others, in a 1996 plane crash in Croatia.
context_section_description: By 1976, Brown had been promoted to Deputy Executive Director for Programs and Governmental Affairs of the National Urban League. However, he resigned in 1979 to work as a deputy campaign manager for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
  Brown was hired in 1981 by the Washington, D.C., law firm Patton Boggs as a lawyer and a lobbyist.
  In May 1988, Brown was named by Jesse L. Jackson to head Jackson's convention team at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. Brown was named along with several other experienced party insiders to Jackson's convention operation. By June, it was apparent that Brown was also running Jackson's campaign.
caption: Ron Brown at the podium
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