By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 9, 2022 – Aside from the history-making aspect of Wes Moore being elected the first Black governor of Maryland and Anthony Brown being elected as Maryland’s first Black Attorney General, another kindred attribute they share is the fact that both have deep familial roots in Jamaica.
Born in Takoma Park, Maryland, Moore’s father William Westley Moore Jr. was a broadcast news journalist and mother, Joy Thomas Moore, was the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica
He was nearly four years old his father died from acute epiglottitis on April 16, 1982, and in the summer of 1984 his mother took him and his two sisters to live in the Bronx, New York, with their grandparents. His grandfather, Rev. Dr. James Thomas, a Jamaican immigrant, was the first Black minister in the history of the Dutch Reformed Church, and his grandmother, Winell Thomas, was a Cuban who moved to Jamaica before immigrating to the United States.
In 1998, Moore graduated Phi Theta Kappa from Valley Forge with an associate degree, completed the requirements for the United States Army’s early commissioning program, and was appointed a second lieutenant of Military Intelligence in the Army Reserve. He then went on to attend Johns Hopkins University, where he studied international relations and economics and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa in 2001.
While at John Hopkins, Moore played as wide receiver for the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays football team. In 1998 and 1999, Moore interned for Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, and later became involved with the March of Dimes before serving in the Army. He also interned at the United States Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Tom Ridge.
After graduating, he attended Wolfson College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, where he earned a Master’s Degree in international relations in 2004 and submitted a thesis entitled, “Rise and Ramifications of Radical Islam in the Western Hemisphere.” He enlisted in the Army following the September 11 attacks, and was deployed to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2006, attaining the rank of captain in the 82nd Airborne Division. He retired from the Army in 2014.
Meanwhile, Anthony Brown was born in 1961 in Huntington, New York. His father, Roy Hershel Brown, a physician, was born in Cayo Mambi, Cuba; raised in Kingston, Jamaica; and later moved to the United States to attend Fordham University. He received his medical degree in Zurich, Switzerland, where he also met his future wife, Lilly I. Berlinger. The couple married and Lilly moved with Brown to New York, where they had Anthony, his sister, and three brothers.
The family lived in Huntington, New York, in Suffolk County on Long Island, where Anthony attended public schools, graduating from Huntington High School in 1979. In his senior year, Brown became the first African American to be elected president of Huntington High School’s student council.
After high school, Brown started at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he had an appointment. He quickly switched to Harvard College, where he majored in government. At Harvard, Brown served on the Student Advisory Committee at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.
Since Harvard did not offer ROTC at the time, in his second year, Brown enrolled in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps program at MIT and earned a two-year scholarship. In 1984, Brown graduated with an A.B. cum laude, and as a Distinguished Military Graduate.
Upon graduation, Brown received a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He served on active duty for five years. He graduated first in his flight class at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and received his aeronautical rating as an Army aviator. He also completed airborne training, receiving both the Basic Parachutist Badge and the Air Assault Badge.
During his time on active duty, Brown served as a helicopter pilot with the Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division in Europe. During that period of active duty, Brown held positions as platoon leader for a target acquisition, reconnaissance and surveillance platoon, executive officer of a general support aviation company, a battalion logistics officer, and the flight operations officer for Task Force 23.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, was the primary source for the information contained in this article.
