Joe Brown

Joseph Blakeney Brown Jr. (born July 5, 1947), known professionally as Judge Joe Brown, is an American former lawyer and television personality. He is a former Shelby County, Tennessee Criminal Court judge and a former arbiter of the arbitration-based reality court show Judge Joe Brown. Early life and education Raised in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, Brown graduated as valedictorian from Dorsey High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law. While attending law school, Brown worked as a substitute teacher. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Brown comes from a family of pioneers and activists. His grandfather, on his father's side, worked in Jackson, Tennessee, with Alex Haley's grandfather as physician partners. His great-grandfather brought the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) to Kansas City in 1896. His grandmother on his mother's side was Choctaw and donated land to the historical black Lane College in Jackson, where his ancestors served as faculty and librarians. His family history is marked by acts of defiance against racism and injustice. His grandfather and uncle murdered two deputy sheriffs for supposedly participating in the lynching of another uncle. His great-grandfather, on his father's side, decapitated his slave master and cut the slave master's wife's hands off for touching him before escaping to Canada. His great-grandfather on his mother's side was a Yoruba chief who was kidnapped and brought to America illegally after the slave trade ended.