Genevieve S. Brooks Brown papers

Genevieve Brooks Brown was born Genevieve Smith on July 12, 1937, one of four daughters of cotton farmers Anderson and Birdie Lee (Hill) Smith of Anderson, South Carolina. She graduated from the Anderson County Training School in 1954, and moved the following year to New York City, where she lived in Manhattan with an aunt and uncle while attending the Combination Business School on 125th Street in Harlem. Her coursework there (she received a diploma in 1959) in shorthand, typing, and addressograph machine operation allowed her to find employment as an executive secretary, and later as a bookkeeper and an office manager. She later moved to her own apartment in the Bronx, where a neighbor introduced her to Herbert Lee Brooks (1934–1971), a building inspector for the City of New York, whom she married in 1962.

The couple eventually settled at 1555 Seabury Place, an apartment building in Crotona Park East, which was then a thriving neighborhood of families who patronized local businesses. As working-class White and African-American residents began departing the area for newer developments like Co-op City, the once-stable area declined rapidly. When Brooks pointed out her building's neglect to the landlord, he said she was the only one to complain and suggested she move to a more upscale location on Park Avenue or somewhere in Queens. When she urged fellow tenants to voice their concerns, they received the same non-response. This ignited her interest in community activism, and led her to organize the 1555 Seabury Tenants' Association, the first of many groups on whose boards she served and that shared the common goal of bettering the lives and working conditions for residents of the Bronx.

In 1974 Genevieve Brooks convened with church leaders and local organizations to form the "Mid-Bronx Desperadoes" (officially incorporated as the MBD Community Housing Corporation), which, as of today, has created over 5,000 units of affordable housing. The MBD's most well-known project, Charlotte Gardens—a mix of modern apartment buildings and smaller, ranch-style homes in a tree-lined setting—rose on the rubble of Charlotte Street, the blighted state of which came to national attention after the visits of Presidents Carter and Reagan in 1977 and 1980.

Brooks's tireless activism brought her to the attention of Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, who recognized her as "an architect of the New Bronx." He appointed her Deputy Bronx Borough President in April 1990. She was the first woman in the post, which she held until January 1998. During her tenure she hosted the visits of such notable figures as President Bill Clinton and New York's Governor Mario Cuomo, and in 1997 received the National Civic League's All-America City Award on behalf of the Bronx.

Brooks married her second husband, John Brown (b. 1935) on June 21, 2000, and soon after retired with him to her native South Carolina, where she continues to be active in church affairs and as chairperson of the AARP Anderson Chapter 3693.

[This note draws on biographical sketches found in Box 1, Folder 5.]