| Summary: | Civil rights leader, union leader, and, labor leader Clayola Brown was born Clayola Beatrice Oliver on August 4, 1948, in Charleston, South Carolina. Brown graduated from Philadelphia's Simon Gratz High School in 1966. She went on to attend Florida A&M University, where she graduated with her B.S. degree in secondary education and physical education in 1970. That year, Brown was hired by the Textile Workers Union and helped unionize the textile giant, J.P. Stevens. Brown became education director for the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, was appointed civil rights director, then international vice president in 1991. In 1994, President Clinton appointed Brown to the National Commission on Employment Policy. In 1995, Brown helped form the Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees. Brown was then elected international vice president of the AFL-CIO. In 2004, she became the first woman to serve as national president of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute.
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