- Collection:
- Archives for Research on Women and Gender
- Title:
- Carol Brown oral history interview, 2015-11-18
- Creator:
- Brown, Carol
- Contributor to Resource:
- Rink, Hillery
- Publisher:
- Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia State University Library
- Date of Original:
- 2015-11-18
- Subject:
- Lesbians--Biography
Aeronautics
Feminism
Community activists - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Cobb County, 33.94147, -84.57667
United States, Georgia, Fulton County, 33.79025, -84.46702
United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798 - Medium:
- oral histories (literary works)
interviews - Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- Carol Brown was born in 1950, spent her childhood in South Florida and moved to Atlanta with her family in 1964. Carol realized that she was gay in her teens and found her way to Little Five Points where young activists involved in the emerging Gay Rights movement and other issues, gathered in the early 1970's. While she enjoyed the company of women who were activists, her own activism did not begin until 1993, when the Cobb County Board of Commissioners planned to adopt a “Family Values” resolution and remove funding for the Arts. Brown joined a small group of people contesting the anti-gay resolution. Her role was to document, archive and distribute materials that chronicled the events surrounding the issue. The Resolution made national and international headlines and coverage lasted for over a year, eventually culminating in Cobb County's loss of an Olympic venue. After a 10 year hiatus, in 2004 Brown's activism would take a different track. She became involved in Community Development issues as a neighborhood advocate. Working with a diverse group of residents, she would co-found the group Canton Road Neighbors, Inc. which focused on planning, zoning and revitalization of an aging community. Brown returned to Georgia State University in her 50s and received a BS in Public Policy and MA in Urban Geography. She then received a Master of Urban and Regional Planning in 2014 from the University of West Georgia. In all, Brown has been active in over 80 rezoning cases, lobbied successfully for installation of sidewalks on the 5 mile Canton Corridor, supported acquisition of greenspace in the 2006 and 2008 Parks Bond referendums, drafted Design Guidelines, served on the Bicycle Pedestrian Improvement Plan Committee and on the Cobb Board of Ethics from 2006-2009. She served as an appointee to the Connect Cobb NW Transit Corridor Alternatives Analysis in 2011-2012 and from 2012-2013 launched a series of Stakeholder presentations, asking Cobb County to consider official recognition of neighborhoods with the Neighborhood Notification Initiative program. In November 2013 the County made notification of rezoning applications accessible to all residents who signed up to receive email alerts.
Brown begins her interview by talking about her childhood. She describes her early love of horses that morphed into a love of sports cars. She talks about her early work life, first at a printing company, then at an Auto parts company, and then her transition to student life at Georgia State University. During her time at GSU, she developed a strong interest in video production, and she talks about that becoming the focus of her career. She also describes her love of aviation, and learning to fly. In 1988, Brown moved to Cobb County, and commuted into Buckhead for a number of years. She discusses the bigotry that was prevalent in Cobb County at the time. Brown describes coming out as a lesbian during her mid-teens, as well as her burgeoning feminism. In her early 20s, she spent some time travelling and working in Europe. Brown talks about the reasons for taking the trip, and then settling into her video production work life when she returned. In 1993, Brown became involved with the Cobb Citizens Coalition. She describes her involvement and the events around it. She talks about the ways that her activism took its toll on her personally and professionally, and that she stepped away from activism until the 2000s, when she became involved with zoning issues in Cobb County, and in particular, the Canton Road Neighbors group. In 2007, Brown went back to school and went on to earn advanced degrees at Georgia State University and the University of West Georgia. She talks about that experience and her continued local zoning work. She finishes by comparing GSU of the 1970s to GSU today. - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/arwg/id/20480
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/iiif/2/arwg:20480/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Copyright to this item is owned by Georgia State University Library. Georgia State University Library has made this item available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For more information see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: Carol Brown, interviewed by Hillery Rink, November 18, 2015, Activist Women Oral History Project, Archives for Research for Women and Gender. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University.
- Extent:
- 45 pages
- Original Collection:
- Activist Women Oral History Project
Archives for Research on Women and Gender - Holding Institution:
- Georgia State University. Special Collections
- Rights:
-
