Oscar Brown, Jr.

October 10, 1926 – May 29, 2005

Inducted in 2025

Books

What It Is: Poems and Opinions of Oscar Brown, Jr. (2005): This anthology showcases Brown’s writing, which blends jazz rhythms with biting social commentary, offering reflections on race, love, and justice. Interspersed with short essays, the book reveals his personal philosophies and artistic motivations.

Poems

Philosophical

• "The Outpouring” – A sonnet cycle born from political reflection.

• “On Sanctifism” – A poetic exploration of spiritual and social balance.

• “About Balance and Ability” – Meditating on human potential and restraint.

Humorous

• “Doubledutch” – A witty take on rhythm, childhood, and cultural pride.

• “But I Was Cool” – A tongue-in-cheek confession of youthful bravado.

• “Signifying Monkey” – A classic in the Black oral tradition, full of sass and satire.

Jazz-Inspired

• “When Listening to Jazz” – A suite of poems meant to be read with bebop in the background.

• “Afro Blue” – Lyrics turned poetry, steeped in rhythm and soul.

• "Dat Dere” – A child’s-eye view of the world, playful and profound.

Heroic Ballads

• “The Snake” – A cautionary tale wrapped in metaphor and groove.

• “Bid ‘Em In” – A haunting poetic reenactment of a slave auction.

• “Work Song” – A tribute to laborers and the dignity of toil.

Long Songs

• “The Lone Ranger” – A sprawling poetic narrative with cultural critique.

• “This Beach” – A reflective piece featured on Def Poetry Jam.

 

Essays

"HIP – Philosophies of Oscar Brown Jr." A foundational piece outlining his concept of being “H.I.P.” (Human Improvement Potential), blending activism, art, and personal growth.

“When I Discovered Shakespeare” A reflection on how encountering Shakespeare’s work shaped his understanding of language, rhythm, and performance.

“America: The Schizophrenic Sociopath" A searing critique of American contradictions—freedom vs. oppression, democracy vs. systemic racism.

"The Greatest Story Never Told" Brown’s take on the overlooked narratives of Black history and the power of reclaiming those stories.

“Regarding Racism" A direct and personal essay confronting the persistence of racial injustice and the need for cultural reckoning.

“On Entering a New World” A visionary piece imagining a future shaped by equity, creativity, and collective consciousness.

“On Sanctifism” A poetic-philosophical meditation on rhythm, spirituality, and the Black cultural experience.

“About Balance and Ability” A thoughtful essay on the importance of self-awareness and discipline in achieving personal and communal progress.

“Doubledutch” A playful yet poignant piece that uses the childhood game as a metaphor for cultural resilience and rhythm.

“Music: The Liberating Force” A passionate argument for music as a tool of resistance, healing, and transformation.

 

Albums

Sin & Soul (Columbia, 1961)

In a New Mood (Columbia, 1962)

Between Heaven and Hell (Columbia, 1962)

Tells It Like It Is! (Columbia, 1963)

Mr. Oscar Brown Jr. Goes to Washington (Fontana, 1965)

Finding a New Friend with Luiz Henrique (Fontana, 1966)

Joy with Jean Pace, Sivuca (RCA Victor, 1970)

Movin’ On (Atlantic, 1972)

Fresh (Atlantic, 1974)

Brother Where Are You (Atlantic, 1974)

Then and Now (Weasel Disc, 1995)

Live Every Minute (Minor Music, 1998)

We’re Live (Mag Pie, 2002)

 

Plays / Musicals

Kicks & Co. (1960)

Crecie (1961)

Oscar Brown Jr. Entertains (one-man show in London) (1963)

Big Time Buck White (1969)

Buck White (1969)

Joy ’66 (1966)

Joy ’69 (1969)

Alegria (1973)

A Year (1975)

Black Stars (1975)

Rev Rex (Rex Edison) (1975)

Ignorapa (1977)

In de Beginnin’ (1977)

Merry Go Minstrel (1977)

Raisin’ Cain (1978)

Covenants (1979)

Great Nitty Gritty (1980)

Journey through Forever (1980)

Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1980)

Sliced Apple (1983)

Maple Leaf (1986)

It’s About Time (1991)

 

Awards and Recognitions

1971 — Grammy nomination for Best Score from an Original Cast Show Album, for Joy.

1976 — Chicago/Midwest Regional Emmy Awards (two), for television special Oscar Brown’s Back In Town.

2002 — Senior of the Year Award (City of Chicago), celebrating his lifelong contributions to music, theatre, and social justice.

2003 — Oscar Brown Day (California State Legislature), acknowledging his role as a mentor, innovator, and advocate for youth empowerment.

2004 — Gordon Parks Maverick Award (Pan African Arts Society), honoring his fearless creativity and commitment to social justice through the arts.

2004 — Jazz at Lincoln Center season-opening act that highlighted his enduring relevance in jazz and performance arts.

2005 — Lifetime Achievement Award (Pan African Film and Arts Festival), recognizing his enduring impact on Black culture, music, and activism.

2005 — Oscar Brown, Jr. H. I. P. (Humanitarian, Intellectual, and Political) Legacy Foundation, created to continue his humanitarian and artistic work.

The word according to Oscar:

“Here’s how it is: how I became a living legend I will never know. For 40 years, I’ve tried to make a public spectacle of myself with a paucity of publicity. This is interesting considering where I come from...I had a fairly uneventful upbringing in Chicago, Illinois where I was born in 1926. I was smart enough to have been ‘double promoted’ twice in grade school, so I was only 16 years old when I enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in the fall of 1943, where I preceded to flunk out of that institution and five other institutions of higher learning. However, through this process I had discovered my unusual talent for English composition and was determined to become a creative writer.”

These words are typical of the talent of Oscar Brown, Jr., words full of wit, humor and undressed honesty. Oscar Brown, Jr. was a master of the spoken word and one of a long lineage of poets in the griot tradition (more properly known in the original Bambara, Mandinka, or Soninke Mande languages as “Djeli”) — the West African poets who often would recite the history and legends of a nation through a seamless combination of words and music. This speaks to a form of literacy that is more ancient than the written word. Oscar is firmly embedded in this tradition—where creative writing is synonymous with the creative spoken word, where one cannot exist without the other.

This fascination with spoken words and their power started for Oscar when he worked as a radio actor during his years as a student at Englewood High School and then during his college years with the Negro News Front, where he spent five years as the “world’s first Negro Newscaster.”

After two unsuccessful attempts at running for political office in Illinois in 1948 and 1952, Oscar decided to dedicate his talents full-time to show business and began his career as a songwriter. He wrote his first full musical called Kicks & Co. in the late 50s and Nichelle Nichols and Burgess Meredith, of Star Trek and Rocky fame, respectively, starred in its 1961 premiere in Chicago.

Oscar also went on to become a successful singer and was able to land a contract with Columbia records where he recorded classic albums such as Sin & Soul, Oscar Brown Jr. Tells It Like It Is and Between Heaven and Hell. On the Fontana label he recorded Mr. Brown Jr. Goes to Washington and Finding a New Friend. These are just some of the many records that Oscar has recorded, along with a prolific output of over 1000 lyrics and poems, penning famous jazz lyrics for such well-covered jazz standards as “Dat Dere,” “Work Song,” and “Afro-Blue.”

The 60s into the early 70s were Oscar’s most prolific years. Not only did he pen the lyrics to hundreds of famous songs but also produced musicals like Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow, based on the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and featuring the music of fellow Chicago legend Phil Cohran. He produced Joy 66, Summer in the City, and Opportunity Please Knock, done with the participation of the Blackstone Rangers street gang as well as the Jackson Five and the actor Avery Brooks. Muhammed Ali starred in Oscar’s play Buck White, off-Broadway in the 70s, when Ali was banned from fighting. He pioneered the idea of musical revue with a social message. Politics were often at the forefront of his art.

Oscar’s work continued into the 70s, 80s and 90s. He appeared on TV and in movies as an actor. In the early 2000s, he had a revival of sorts with a new generation through his several appearances on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. His last produced musical was Great Nitty Gritty; his only published collection of lyrics and individual poems was entitled What It Is: Poems and Opinions of Oscar Brown, Jr.

Like several of the Black Arts Movement poets and performers of his generation, Oscar was a “poet of the people.” He was trying to impact the man on the street just as much as the man in the academy. If one looks at the history of literacy in the world, one will discover that more people in the world are “literate” who cannot read a single word written on the page, but yet they memorize and process information through symbol, through feeling, through rhythm and song. The Black Arts Movement sought to tap into this traditionally African form of “literacy” but translate it to the Western world on the page as well. Oscar Brown, Jr.’s work is the bridge between these other ways of “writing” and ways of “knowing.”

His literary value all depends on the lens determining what is literature — is it only defined from a perspective which says that it cannot be performed and must only be consumed by reading, or is it something more broad, something that can be consumed even by those who can’t read? Oscar’s work was accessible to these people. And it is because he approached his creative writing in this manner that his words stick in our soul today. He is a testament to the power of the spoken word, the elder brother of the written word.

According to Oscar’s contemporary and fellow spoken-word artist Kent Foreman:

“Oscar understood better than anyone else that rhyme teaches: that a poem is almost as much a thing of rhythm as it is of words, and sometimes rhythm matters more than the meaning. When the tempo is more important than the text, you get Rap. Oscar is the shade that shelters today’s rappers.

“Every time an MC raps a rhyme, and every time a jazz singer gives us unforgettable lyrics to a melody, and every time a slam poet enthralls an audience with their mastery of inflection and prosody, we are giving tribute to Mr. Kicks himself, Oscar Brown, Jr. — Chicago born, Chicago bred, and thoroughly rooted in the people and pulse of this city.”

      — Arthur Ade Amaker