Mitchell Brown served as a radioman in the Signal Corps during WWII. After
the war he attended Hilltop Radio-Electronics Institute, a black-owned
electronics school in Washington, D. C. open to African-Americans. In
1948 he was hired by the Army to work at Arlington Hall with the title
of engineering technician. He worked side by side with his white counterparts.
Although, by all accounts, the environment for African-Americans in
the Research and Development organization was generally positive and
conducive to professional growth, the white engineering technicians
with less or comparable qualifications were hired at higher grades than
the blacks. None-the-less, Mitchell Brown spent his entire 30-year
career involved with the development of secure voice communications
capabilities. He became an expert on technical devices and ended his
career as test director of the Digital Voice Processor Consortium Test
Program, which led to the selection of equipment for the Secure Telephone
Unit (STU) II. He was commended by Lt. Gen. Allen for his efforts in
the development of a narrowband digital voice processor. Mr. Brown
retired in 1976.