Robert Raymond Brown led a “ministry of reconciliation” as a key figure in Little Rock Central High School’s desegregation crisis in 1957. He advocated a peaceful resolution to the racial divisiveness that engulfed the school, city, and nation at that time. See Finding aid for the Bishop Robert R. Brown papers (UALR.MS.0081)
Bishop Brown was born in Garden City, Kansas, on June 16, 1910. He grew up in Texas and attended St. Mary’s University (San Antonio, Texas) after graduating from high school. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1933. In 1937, Brown received a degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary.
Bishop Brown’s Life
Brown received his ordination as priest of the Episcopal Church on December 24, 1937. He went on to serve as priest for three congregations in Texas until 1947, when he moved to Richmond,Virginia, to serve as priest for its Episcopal church from 1947 to 1955. He married the former Kathleen Warwick and they had three children: Katherine, Anne and Robert, who would later serve as an Associate Supreme Court Justice in Arkansas.
In 1955, Brown was consecrated as a bishop in the diocese of Arkansas. He became the ninth bishop of Arkansas in 1956, the year before the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis erupted and became national news. Bishop Brown also served as a trustee of the American Church Institute for Negroes, an organization charged with the coordination of church-affiliated schools established to educate African Americans in the South.
Featured image: Painted portrait of Bishop Brown. Courtesy of Robert L. Brown.
Developed by
The Bishop Robert Brown Character Collection was developed by UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture intern Steven Thompson.