Willie Brown Interview (page: 4 / 8) Former Mayor of San Francisco	Print Interview

When you started your law career did you have any idea what you wanted to do?

Willie Brown: By the time I entered the practice of law I had been involved in politics for eight or nine years. From the second semester in college I had become part of the political scene on campus. We had started a protest operation over some student lockers, or something. That had grown into a college-based community political movement. We elected the first black president of the student body.

Nobody lived on campus. It was a streetcar college, there were no dormitories. The average age was about 23 and I was 17, so that was a great gap. There were lots of returning veterans who were living off the GI Bill and were in pretty good shape financially.

Very few high school graduates went directly to this school. It was a wonderful learning experience for this kid, who had a little bit of smarts, helping out these old guys who had been out of high school a long time. These friendships developed, but they were also sensitive to the issues of adult governance and independence. That school treated them as if they were all still 17. That started the political process.

By 1952 I had begun my involvement with the NAACP Youth Council. That heightened my interest in politics, as well. I became involved in organized politics through the Young Democrats on campus. By 1956, in that campaign involving Estes Kefauver, I was a member of the Young Democrats statewide. I was friendly with the Burtons, who were a legendary political family in San Francisco. I knew the arguments between the liberals and the conservatives in San Francisco. So by the time I got out of law school in '58 I was already immersed in the world of politics.

Were you already thinking about running for office?

Willie Brown: No, not really thinking about running for office, but knowing that I was going to participate in politics. The running for office started in 1960, when I ran for the Democratic County Central Committee, on a ticket put together by Phil Burton. He needed a black on the ticket and I was the only young black lawyer around at that time. He needed an Asian on the ticket, he needed an old person on the ticket, he needed a labor person on the ticket, and he needed a left-winger.

So, a Hallinan, Willie Brown, and some old person, all became a part of this thing. Of that group, I got elected to the County Central Committee, and I immediately became involved in who should be the chair of that committee. I think we lost that fight by one or two votes, because the old entrenched Democrats still controlled more votes than Burton controlled, but I had my taste of the war, at that time. At that moment, I knew that electoral politics were an avenue that I should consider.

Who gave you the help you needed to start a political career?

Willie Brown: Phil Burton would have to be credited, from the standpoint of my elected political career. He was the first person with any substance to step to the plate and offer assistance, and offer resources. He took a considerable political risk, because I ran against a Democratic incumbent, a person who was almost his seatmate in the halls of the legislature. He backed my candidacy on the basis that we needed to expand representation. We particularly needed to expand representation for African-Americans in the California legislature. I'd have to credit Phil with being the person who gave me the first break.

What do you think he saw in you that made him say, Willie Brown's the guy to do this?

Willie Brown: I was probably the only guy around. I was a 23 year-old lawyer. I had a family, a wife and a child. I had not yet been to jail for anything. I had a civil rights background by then, having come through the ranks of the NAACP. I had a black middle-class background, in that I had been a fraternity member, so I had that network. I was a youth director of my church, where I had 50 or 60 young adults and teenagers under my jurisdiction.

So I was everybody's fair-haired boy. I had been anointed to be the next young phenom in the African-American community in San Francisco. Too few had gone on to graduate school. Too few had chosen a profession where they had some high visibility.

Then I stumbled upon a protest. I led the first protest against housing discrimination in San Francisco. That resulted in nationwide attention, because it was a northern -- or in this case a western -- liberal city, having its soul exposed for racism.

It was all by accident that this incident occurred. Lo and behold, a combination of all those factors moved the name Willie Brown ahead of everybody else's. Phil Burton, being the smart political guy that he was, and knowing that he needed an anchor tenant in the black community to become a part of his coalition, literally said, "This is what you must do."

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