You Can’t Go Wrong Doing Right: How a Child of Poverty Rose to the White House and Helped Change the World

Working from historical records and personal reminiscence, Brown recounts his improbable career as a political “superhero flying to the rescue” in this uplifting rags-to-riches memoir. An insightful and honest guide to the racial difficulties his generation faced, Brown traces the trajectory of an illustrious career in an elegantly structured narrative bookended with an account of a 1988 incident in South Africa. The main text opens with the author’s childhood and early years as a police officer in North Carolina in the late 1950s. An appointment by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics moved him and his young bride to New York City, where he met Martin Luther King Jr. The next two sections cover Brown’s role in the civil rights movement and his time as a special assistant to the president during Nixon’s first term. Though a registered Democrat, Brown embraced the opportunity to become the “first black man named to the new administration.” With Nixon’s support, he more than doubled federal funding for black universities, identified black military leaders for promotion, promoted integration for public schools in the South, and, as luck would have it, got out before Watergate. This pleasant and introspective memoir will inspire readers to be of service. Agent: Jan Miller, Dupree Miller. (Jan.)