“YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, ANTHONY BROWN” –
April 17, 2021 – Growing up in Ohio to a single mother who was an alcoholic and suffered from depression, Brown never met his father and was the victim of severe physical abuse. On many occasions, his mother used an extension cord, and he recalls his worst beating was after he had stolen money from her job. She stood on his neck and beat him so much, she needed to take a break. He ran to a friend’s house, where she followed him, beat him there and continued to beat him on the walk home. His abuse wasn’t only from his mother, but from his older sister and his teacher who spanked him, which caused him to drop out of school in the 8th grade. By the age of 7, he was stealing alcohol and by the age of 14, he was a full-blown drug addict, which he says was the only way he could cope. “I would do anything not to feel anymore. I couldn’t kill myself because if I wasn’t successful, I would get beat. I was so traumatized that I was borderline delusional, and nobody seemed to care that I was crazy.”
When he was 8 years old, he witnessed a man being shot near his home, and when he was 9 years old, his mother was shot in the head and survived. In order to escape the chaos of his environment, Brown ran away from home at the age of 14. He lived in abandoned houses and worked for a carnival, where he slept under the amusement park rides, until he was 18 years old. The first person to ask Brown if he wanted help was a police officer, to which he said, “Yes.” From there, he met Nancy who offered him a place at an alternative sentencing program. After detoxing in jail, a woman named Jill picked him up. His plan was to sell drugs in this residential program, but Jill asked him, “Do me a favor, if you’re going to leave, don’t jump the fence, walk out the front door,” Brown realized she was placing her trust in him and changed his mind. Brown was put in a furnished apartment where he learned how to deal with his anger, how to do chores and pay bills. He also had to attend 12-step meetings and find employment as a requirement of being there.
