Image of Oral Lee Brown

Oral Lee Brown was inducted into the Education category in 2012.

My Story

In 1987, touched by a chance encounter with a young girl whose home life made it difficult to attend elementary school, Oral Lee Brown "adopted" an entire first-grade class at Brookfield Elementary School in Oakland, which saw 3 out of 4 kids drop out of school before graduating 12th grade. She promised each of those "adopted" children that if they graduated from high school with at least a C average she would pay for their college tuition. By fulfilling that promise, Oral helped 18 of those 22 children graduate from college. She later established the Oral Lee Brown Foundation, which provides educational assistance and financial scholarships, and has sent almost 200 of Oakland's most at-risk youth to college.