Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Outspoken in Alabama

We've blogged before on Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, the Alabama-based group and NCADP affiliate.

Recently an Alabama newspaper published a great feature story on the group's leader, tireless Esther Brown, one of the leaders in the trenches of the abolition movement. Here's a snippet:

Lanett woman battles against death penalty
Opelika-Auburn News

Esther Brown has always been an outspoken woman.

After all, being outspoken for a cause is a trait that seems to run in her family.

Born in 1933 in Berlin, Germany, Brown spent her childhood years watching Adolf Hitler’s regime come to power and the onset of World War II.

Brown’s mother was German and her father British.

Mistreatment of Jews became a common sight for her during those days in Berlin, but even as a pupil in grade school, she spoke out against the Nazi regime to the point that school officials sent notes home with her when she was 10-years-old, asking her parents to keep her quiet or face possible arrest themselves.

But speaking up for what was right was something Brown says she felt she had to do, even as a child.

"I learned very early on that just because you’re in power, doesn’t mean you’re right," Brown said.


To read the entire piece go here.

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