5 things to know about Kamala Harris' pastor

5. Knew Martin Luther King Jr. 

Brown elaborated on his relationship with the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in his 2021 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. As the newspaper reported, “In 1960 Brown was arrested alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at an Atlanta lunch counter sit-in. Two years later, as a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, he was one of eight students in the only college class taught by the civil rights leader.” 

“Dr. King was a very regular, down-to-earth person,” Brown recalled. “He was not haughty and arrogant at all. In fact, in physical stature, he was only 5’7” — a short man — but the thing that made him bigger than life was his intellect and his commitment to the welfare and advancement of others.” 

Brown identified the concept of “personalism” as one of the most influential lessons he learned from King. He described personalism as the idea that “every person should be viewed as having dignity regardless of how different they may be.”

Brown discussed his relationship with King further in a 2013 interview conducted as part of the Southern Oral History Program commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History & Culture. He noted that after attending Morehouse, where he was taught by King, he was admitted to Crozer Theological Seminary. “One of my letters of recommendation was written by Dr. King,” Brown detailed.