By Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN For Horace Brown, inauguration day wasn’t just a moment in history, but a moment for which he and countless others helped pave the way.
In 1951, Mr. Brown, 75, became the first African-American graduate of the Peddie School. On Tuesday, just an hour before Barack Obama was sworn in as the first African-American president of the United States, he returned to the private school to share his tale of overcoming injustice with the current student body. He spoke in the Ayer Memorial Chapel, where Dr. Martin Luther King had spoken 52 years earlier.
”I didn’t know I was making history,” Mr. Brown told the assembled crowd, his voice shaking at times. “I just wanted to go to school.”
In 1949, Mr. Brown’s parents were employees at the school when Headmaster Wilbour Saunders approached his mother and told her that if her son could pass Peddie’s entrance exam, he could attend the school. Mr. Brown would pass that test, but still wonders what the conversation was like when Dr. Saunders tried to convince the rest of the school’s leadership to admit an African-American.
”This was before anyone even talked about civil rights,” Mr. Brown said. “At that time things were just the way they were. He was very ahead of his time.”
Current Peddie Headmaster John Green also lauded Dr. Saunders’ forward thinking in his introduction of Mr. Brown.
”He exemplified our core values before it was popular, or even safe, to do so,” Mr. Green said.
Mr. Brown, who lives in Burlington, described for the crowd an intolerant and sometimes violent atmosphere in Hightstown when he first began at Peddie. He said the Ku Klux Klan was active in the borough, burning crosses on the lawns of minorities. He described an instance when an African-American man was beaten nearly to death after it was discovered that he was having an affair with a white woman, as well as his personal experiences with segregation.
”In the late 1940s Hightstown was like most other towns; separate but not equal was the rule of the day,” he said.
At the time Mr. Brown could not eat at most of the restaurants in town, and the local movie theater had segregated sections. He recounted an experience he had when trying to get served at a local ice cream parlor.
”It wasn’t that they refused me service,” he said. “They didn’t even see me.”
Mr. Brown said the strength, confidence and pride that his parents instilled in him from an early age was the only thing that kept him from feelings of inferiority and depression in the face of so much hate.
Despite the conditions though, there were fellow, white students who were able to transcend the day and offer Mr. Brown support and friendship as he navigated his way through Peddie. He cited former Hightstown Mayor Skip Cox as a fellow student who embraced him as a friend.
”They carried me,” Mr. Brown said. “They carried me until I was comfortable enough to stand on my own.”
He would stand on his own, and was elected as class secretary during his senior year. Mr. Brown also was a three-sport athlete, and was inducted into Peddie’s Sports Hall of Fame.
After graduation Mr. Brown attended Rutgers University before joining the Army, and then finished his degree at Monmouth College. He worked as a nurse for 20 years, then switched gears and joined the marketing department at Xerox for 23 years. He retired in 2004.
Mr. Brown said he volunteered for President Obama’s campaign, walking door to door to drum up support for his candidate.
He told the Peddie students that while the election of an African-American as president represents a dream becoming a reality, there is still much work to be done to fulfill America’s promise of equality.
”When you reach the mountain top, you have only begun to climb,” he said.
He ended by challenging the students to work to create the country they want.
”This is an historical moment,” Mr. Brown said. “What will history say about you? Promise each other to make America more beautiful.”

