Rosemary Brown (politician)
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Hon. Rosemary Brown (by Barbara Woodley, 1990 National Archives of Canada Collections PA-186871)
The Honourable Rosemary Brown (June 17, 1930 - April 26, 2003) was a Canadian politician.
Brown was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and moved to Canada in 1951 to study at McGill University. She served as an Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the British Columbia legislature from 1972 to 1986, making her the first African-Canadian woman to be elected to a Canadian provincial legislature.
In 1975, she became the first black woman to run for the leadership of a Canadian federal party (and only the second woman, after Mary Walker-Sawka), finishing second to Ed Broadbent in that year's New Democratic Party leadership convention. Because of her hard work and dedication, she was sworn to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. After departing politics, she became a professor of women's studies at Simon Fraser University, and in 1996 was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.