Post by Shunqetta N. Cunningham

CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY: Born August 22, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois, Alice Ruth Clark Brown was an aerial acrobat, dancer, showgirl, and community volunteer. She was the first Black showgirl to be in the Ringling Brothers touring circus. She did amazing stunts and feats and also did many tricks while simultaneously riding an elephant! One famous trick was called “The Cakewalk Jamboree”. Elephants would gallop out and stand on their hind legs, and she would be riding one of the elephants, standing tall! A trailblazer in the legendary circus called “The Greatest Show on Earth,” Clark Brown experienced her share of racism in the 1970s. She found bugs in her food at a stop in Florida and was not served at all in Texas. Ms. Brown chose to focus on the amazing opportunities of being on the road as a dancer and meeting various celebrities, as was quoted by her husband Geoff Brown of 44 years. In 1974, Ms. Brown left the circus and returned to Chicago as a writer and tour guide for the Johnson Publishing Headquarters. Clark Brown remained involved in the arts and played piano for one of the Triton College jazz bands and sang in nightclubs under the alias of Brandee Brown. She also portrayed Nettie in the original cast of Precious Lord, Take My Hand with Chicago’s Black Ensemble Theater’s production, in 1993. Ms. Brown was instrumental in assisting in the landmark status of her alma mater, DuSable High School. In addition, she helped people with substance abuse problems, worked at a domestic abuse hotline, and tutored and counseled children at after-school programs. Ruth Alice Clark Brown died June 6, 2021, of cardiopulmonary illnesses at her home in Oak Park at the age of 68. Persevering fact: When she left to join the circus back in 1972, Clark Brown promised her mother she would eventually go back to school. And she did, graduating from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2004, with a bachelor’s degree in English.