Brown Was 'Conscience Of A Community'

INDIANAPOLIS - Amos Brown was remembered Saturday as “the conscience of a community” during a funeral service that included many of the political figures he held to account during his 40-year career as a broadcaster, journalist and activist in Indianapolis.

“He is my friend, but his job was to keep me straight,” said Indianapolis Mayor-elect Joe Hogsett. “And to hold me accountable on behalf of this great community that he loved.”

Hogsett drew laughter from the crowd at the Light of the World Christian Church when he read aloud the first few paragraphs of Brown’s final column in the Indianapolis Recorder, titled “Some Advice for Our New Mayor.”

“After a long and somewhat boring mayoral campaign,” Brown had written, “we apparently have a new mayor. Let me offer my congratulations and some words of advice and warning for Indianapolis’ 49th mayor.”

Brown went on to assert, Hogsett said, that “I dodged, I ducked and I avoided every important issue that he asked me about. I haven’t even been sworn in yet and Amos Brown was just tellin’ it. Classic,” Hogsett said.

Brown’s show on AM 1310 WTLC, "Afternoons With Amos," debuted in 2004. He interviewed elected leaders and other prominent community members, raising issues important to the city's minority community.

“I never once turned down an opportunity to be on Amos Brown’s radio program,” former Gov. Mitch Daniels during Saturday’s service. “First out of respect for the man, of course. Secondly, because there was no other way – no nearly comparable way – to listen to and try to respond to the voice of the black community of Indianapolis and beyond, and how that is replaced is not at all clear to me this afternoon.”

Gov. Mike Pence also spoke at the service. Earlier this week, Pence also posthumously awarded Brown the state’s highest honor, the Sachem Award. And he ordered all state agencies in Marion County to fly flags on the day of Brown’s funeral.

Brown was inducted into the Indiana Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2007. His 40-year radio career made him the longest-running African-American radio personality in Indianapolis, he noted in his column in the Recorder, "Just Tellin' It," in April marking his 40th anniversary.

Brown died last week at his family’s home in Chicago. He was 64.