Carol Brown papers

Carol Brown was born in 1950. She spent her childhood in South Florida and moved to Atlanta with her family in 1964. Carol realized that she was gay in her teens and found her way to Little Five Points where young activists involved in the emerging Gay Rights movement and other issues, gathered in the early 1970's. While she enjoyed the company of women who were activists, her own activism did not begin until 1993, when the Cobb County Board of Commissioners planned to adopt a “Family Values” resolution and remove funding for the Arts. Brown joined Cobb Citizens Coalition, a small group of people contesting the anti-gay resolution founded by Jon Greaves Jr. Cobb Citizens Coalition (CCC) organized to challenge the resolutions. The CCC gained important allies in February 1994, when Atlanta-based activists Pat Hussain and Jon-Ivan Weaver established the Olympics Out of Cobb County (OOCC) campaign. Their mission was to persuade Atlanta’s Committee for the Olympic Games not to hold the women’s volleyball competition in Cobb County as planned. Their activities included a rally of over 400 people in the Marietta Square and raising funds for a billboard on I-75 that read “Stop the Hate, Rescind the Resolution.” The Resolution made national and international headlines and coverage lasted for over a year, eventually culminating in Cobb County's loss of an Olympic venue. Brown's activism ended in July 1994 and she was not engaged in the Olympics issue. She documented and distributed materials for the Cobb Citizens Coalition that chronicled the events surrounding the resolution. After a 10 year hiatus, in 2004 Brown's activism would take a different track. She became involved in Community Development issues as a neighborhood advocate. Working with a diverse group of residents, she would co-found the group Canton Road Neighbors, Inc. which focused on planning, zoning and revitalization of an aging community. Brown returned to Georgia State University in her 50s and received a BS in Public Policy and MA in Urban Geography. She then received a Master of Urban and Regional Planning in 2014 from the University of West Georgia. In all, Brown has been active in over 80 rezoning cases, lobbied successfully for installation of sidewalks on the 5 mile Canton Corridor, supported acquisition of greenspace in the 2006 and 2008 Parks Bond referendums, drafted Design Guidelines, served on the Bicycle Pedestrian Improvement Plan Committee and on the Cobb Board of Ethics from 2006-2009. She served as an appointee to the Connect Cobb NW Transit Corridor Alternatives Analysis in 2011-2012 and from 2012-2013 launched a series of Stakeholder presentations, asking Cobb County to consider official recognition of neighborhoods with the Neighborhood Notification Initiative program. In November 2013 the County made notification of rezoning applications accessible to all residents who signed up to receive email alerts.