A black Catholic who traveled from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

Politics in Witness to Truth

by Louis A. Brown

The political and spiritual journey of a black Catholic staffer at the Democratic National Committee who quits his job in response to the Obama administration's aggressive pro-abortion tactics and becomes a proud Republican.

In the 2012 film Restless Heart, which tells the life story of the father of modern Western philosophy, St. Ambrose tells St. Augustine: "It's not the man who finds the truth, it's the truth that finds the man: because the Truth is a person. It's Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

No words can better explain how I, a black man who has a passion for the homeless, for civil rights, and for working class culture, who holds a law degree from a historically black university and was born into two generations of union households, could go from a dream job in the Democratic Party to becoming a conservative and a Republican in just under three years' time.

I was born into a middle-class African-American Catholic family in early 1980s Detroit. My grandfather, a World War II veteran, was proudly a union man who voted Democrat in nearly every federal election. Of course, in that time, being a Catholic and voting for Democrats was much easier. My mother was a teacher and a union member; she was politically progressive on economic issues, yet conservative on social ones.

From an early age, I was taught to appreciate my Catholic faith, to value my Catholic education, and to know that being a Christian meant that I must help take care of all God's children. By God's grace, I attended two outstanding Catholic schools in Metro-Detroit. When I graduated from Brother Rice High School, I felt very strongly that my vocation was to work in government and politics.

During my journey from obtaining my bachelor's degree at James Madison College at Michigan State University to receiving my law degree at Howard University School of Law, I was a Democrat. It felt like a natural fit: I am an African-American, I care about the poor and vulnerable, and I wanted to be a civil rights attorney.

During college and law school, I interned for then-Democratic State Senator Gary Peters. Between undergrad and law school, I worked as a staff assistant on the Michigan staff of U.S. Senator Carl Levin. During law school, I worked as a summer law clerk for Governor Jennifer Granholm and interned for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C. I worked for and with people of good will. I could not have been more proud to be a Democrat.

After passing the bar in 2007, I joined a prominent Michigan law firm. In 2008, on my way to volunteer in support of then-Senator Obama, a friend told me about the video The Silent Scream, an ultrasound video of an abortion from the early 1980s. Just as the unborn baby is being killed, the baby's mouth opens as if to scream, but no sound can be heard.

I was very shaken up by the video. I am a practicing Catholic; I love the faith and have always been pro-life. Even so, I had never really thought of abortion as truly killing an unborn child. After that day, I stopped volunteering in support of then-Senator Obama. I continued practicing law and grew in my convictions about the right to life, but I was still a Democrat.

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