Exactly like….Nobody Else

CLEO SCOTT BROWN, author of Witness to the Truth and Raceology 101, speaks, writes and conducts workshops on issues of race relations, voting, class, and bias through her company History Matters Institute. Her company focuses on using history to generate meaningful, insightful discussions that lead to introspection and change.

She has experienced many things, and like her father, who is the central figure in her first book, she believes that their experiences have been for a greater purpose.

At seven, she was in the car with her father when he was shot for trying to get the right to vote. At nine, she was watching her father pull up Klan crosses from the end of the road to their home. At ten, she was hiding while her older brothers and sisters did target practice in order to defend the house if the family was attacked at night. At 11, she was helping adults learn how to pass the multi-part citizenship test required to register to vote. She got to become a little human guinea pig in a school integration experiment at age 12, an experience that proved to be more traumatic than the constant threat of being killed. And then at 17, she was off to experience the black power movement at the predominately Black Grambling State University and at 21, affirmative action quotas and some racial healing at General Motors in Anderson, Indiana. Her and her father’s direct personal experiences, combined with a lack of bitterness and anger, provide the rare but necessary combination that moves people to introspection and action.

Cleo has had the opportunity to share her very unique story with audiences across the country, including colleges, schools, churches, detention centers, and civic organizations. She uses her talks, writing, and workshops to help bring enlightenment and understanding about the very complex and oftentimes emotional subject of American race relations. She received the HBO Beah Richards Spirit Award for her work in this area.