The fiery H. Rap Brown (born Hubert Gerold Brown) died on November 23, 2025, at 82 years of age.
H. Rap Brown followed Stokely Carmichael as fifth chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in1967 and continued the transition of the leadership of SNCC to being more militant and ushering in the Black Power movement.
I consider the legendary John Lewis, the third chair of SNCC, the first of these more militant chairpersons. As a speaker at the 1963 March on Washington, Lewis planned, rightfully, to blame the federal government as a culprit in preserving segregation. He was prevented from doing so as the organizers censored his speech.
A much more militant Stokely Carmichael, who later changed his name to Kwame Toure, followed Lewis as chair and immediately began pushing the idea of Black Power. Rap Brown followed Carmichael as chair of SNCC in 1967 and continued the push for Black Power.
Rap Brown had organized for SNCC in the Mississippi campaign in 1964, then moved to Howard University and chaired the chapter there. In 1966, he organized in Greene County in the Alabama Black Belt,
As the fierier Rap Brown was set to succeed Stokely as chair of SNCC, Stokely famously teased the media that they would miss him as they dealt with the more militant Rap Brown. Brown immediately became known for such fiery pronouncements as, “Violence is as American as apple pie.”
My first and only encounter with Rap Brown occurred in Central Park at a concert by the famed singer, Odetta, who was often referred to as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement.” As we were waiting for the concert to start, I went over to chat with him, just as at least seven plainclothes policemen gathered around. Rap invited me to stay until these officers went away and stopped bothering him.
One of these men, apparently the leader, approached Brown and asked him about his intentions for the event. As Rap assured them that he was there only to experience Odetta, they seemed prepared to keep Rap from grabbing the stage and starting a riotous demonstration.
After police officers retreated a bit, I admonished Rap for his recent attempt to board an airplane with a gun, for which he was arrested. Rap’s response was typical of his growing militance, “No, I must always have my s___.”
I moved on to other topics, including asking Rap whether the rumor was true that a little-known group called The Revolutionary Action Movement had planned to assassinate 2 or 3 integrationist civil rights leaders. His quick reply was, “No, but the sentiment is correct.”
As chair of SNCC, Brown was a target of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program, which aimed to neutralize civil rights and black power leaders. Thus, he was blamed for things like riots that later evidence disputed. However, his violent interactions with police kept him in trouble, even after he left SNCC in 1968. In 1971, he was convicted of armed robbery and served five years in the Attica prison in New York, where he carried on his activism by writing articles and going on a hunger strike.
After prison, he moved to Georgia, became an American Muslim cleric, and took the name Jamil Abdullah al-Min. But his violent encounters with police continued, as he was convicted of killing two police officers and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in November.
