TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Jan 21, 2026

Former state Rep. Dr. Tommie F. Brown, D-Chattanooga died Tuesday at age 91, The Chattanoogan reports. Brown served in the Tennessee legislature for 20 years and was the first African American to lead a department at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). She represented her district in the state House of Representatives from 1992 to 2012. Brown also was the lead plaintiff in the landmark 1987 Brown v. Board of Commissioners of Chattanooga lawsuit, which resulted in a federal court ruling that the city’s at-large voting system violated the Voting Rights Act and significant changes in Chattanooga’s form of government. An elementary school on the UTC campus is named in her honor, and her personal and professional papers are housed in the UTC Library’s Special Collections.