Jamie Foster Brown

Magazine publisher Jamie Foster Brown was born on June 25, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois to Mamie Lee and Peter James Foster. She graduated from Calumet High School in Chicago, Illinois and attended Roosevelt University. She later received her B.A. degree from the University of Stockholm in Stockholm, Sweden.

After graduating from high school, Brown worked for the Equitable Life Insurance Society and later worked at the Teletype Corporation. She was then hired as William A. Nail’s assistant at Zenith Electronics and later worked as a secretary at Foote, Cone & Belding in Chicago, Illinois. In 1972, Brown and her husband, Dr. Lorenzo Brown, moved to Sweden. Together, they managed a cleaning business while finishing their respective degrees. In 1978, they returned to the United States and moved to Washington, D.C. There, Brown founded the Washington Theater Group, an organization that marketed group ticket sales for theatrical performances in 1979. In 1981, Brown was hired as Robert L. Johnson’s advertising secretary at Black Entertainment Television (BET). From 1981 to 1985, Brown worked as an assistant producer of BET’s Video Soul and Video LP programs. She left BET in 1985, and was hired at Impact magazine. In 1988, Brown founded Sister 2 Sister magazine and later created a syndicated radio show, The Sister 2 Sister Celebrity Update. Brown also appeared as a regular guest on the Joan Rivers Show and on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. In 1998, Brown published Betty Shabazz: A Sisterfriends’ Tribute in Words and Pictures. Brown also appeared on an episode of E! True Hollywood Story in 2009, and in the 2012 film Think Like a Man. Later, in 2015, Brown appeared in the television series Unsung.

In 1998, Brown received the Midwest Radio and Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She was inducted into the National Association of Black Female Executives in Music and Entertainment, Shero Hall of Fame in 2002. She then received the Golden Scissors Lifetime Achievement Award and the Association for Women in Communications, Matrix Award for Professional Achievement. In 2008, she was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Bennett College. The following year, Brown received the Freedom Sisters Award from the Ford Motor Company.

Jamie Foster Brown was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 5, 2007 and April 11, 2019.