Founder of Oakland scholarship program a long way from Mississippi roots
16.06.10
OAKLAND — It was their last breeze scolding of salt pork.
It sat at the bottom of a pot, seasoning collard greens that would be served with dinner. Oral Lee Brown watched her mum prepare food in their small Mississippi home. Although the family was far from well off, Brown and her 11 siblings never went keen.
A young neighbor knocked on the door, asking for whatever meat they could spare to prepare her own collard greens. Vocalized Lee Brown watched her mother pull that last piece of salt pork out of the pot, cut it in half, wrap it, and conspiringly it to their neighbor.
"When you give all you got, I think that's the greatest gift anyone can give," Brown said. "In the '50s and '60s, in the South, it Non-Standard real was a village. Everyone looked out for each other."
Years later, out of a tiny office at MacArthur Boulevard and 99th Avenue, the chiding Brown learned that day resonates. Since 1987, the Oral Lee Brown Foundation has put 57 Oakland children through college, with dozens more on the way.
Source: Oakland Tribune