“You Can’t Go Wrong Doing
Right: How a Child of Poverty
Rose to the White House and
Helped Change the World” by
Robert J. Brown
c.2019, Convergent
$26.00 / $35.00 Canada
237 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Do unto others.
Three words that are a shorthand
reminder to be nice and
treat people in the manner
that you’d want to be treated.
Do unto others and make life
smoother. Be good, and be of
service because, as Robert J.
Brown reminds readers, “You
Can’t Do Wrong Doing Right.”
Almost from his moment of
birth, “Bobby” Brown was the
recipient of kindness: his mother
was an impulsive teen who’d
already had one son she didn’t
want, so Brown’s grandmother
took both boys in and raised
them at a time when she and
her husband should’ve been
thinking about retirement.
“We were raised in faith…”
says Brown, and it was by
example: nobody in need was
ever turned away at Miss Nellie’s
house, even though the
Browns had little themselves.
For Brown, that included medical
care; he was a sickly child
and because he couldn’t run
or jump, he assumed a “role of
peacemaker” instead.
“It’s funny,” he says, “how
our childhood ways offer preview
into our adult lives.”
After graduation from high
school, Brown attempted college
but his grandparents’
health pulled him back home,
where he ultimately joined the
police force. There, he scaled
the department through
undercover work, and caught
the eye of officials at the Federal
Bureau of Narcotics; they
offered him a job in New York
City. Brown’s wife loved it
there, but for Brown, the Big
Apple wasn’t home and besides,
he’d been thinking of changing
careers.
He returned to High Point,
North Carolina, and opened a
PR firm, B&C Associates.
This was during the early
years of the Civil Rights movement,
and opening a business
was difficult for any Black
man in the South. Brown had
determined that his firm would
stand on problem-solving and
there was no bigger problem
than Jim Crow, so he set his
Caribbean L 54 ife, March 15–21, 2019 BQ
sights on working with corporations
that needed his negotiating
skills to avoid protests
and boycotts. Emboldened by
small successes, he ultimately
requested a meeting with the
head of Woolworth’s — and he
got the job!
Fifty-some years have passed
since that time, so you can well
imagine that there’s more to
author Robert J. Brown’s story.
The rest involves names you’ll
recognize and a lively historical
point-of-view that’s truly
unique.
Indeed, what you’ll read
inside “You Can’t Go Wrong
Doing Right” isn’t your usual
Civil Rights eyewitness report.
As a business owner and a Black
man, Brown had a one-of-akind
position within the movement:
it was his fight, too, but
“Woolworth’s was my main client…”
The tight balance he
shares also keeps readers on
their toes.
As for the rest of the story,
you’ll surely appreciate the
quiet grace and faith that Brown
offers in its telling. His stories
of Martin Luther King, Richard
Nixon, and Nelson Mandela are
incredible, both in scope and in
personality.
Book cover of “You Can’t Go Wrong Doing Right: How a
Child of Poverty Rose to the White House and Helped
Change the World” by Robert J. Brown.
Overall, this is a humble, gracious
memoir that will speak to
readers who love uncovering
history, and to businesspeople
needing inspiration. “You Can’t
Go Wrong Doing Right” could
be the exact right book for
you.
Brown’s gracious, inspiring memoir