Brown studied at Hunter College where she earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1956; and she received a master's degree from the University of Minnesota in organic chemistry in 1958, the first African American woman to achieve this.
Brown studied at Hunter College where she earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1956, one of two African Americans in the inaugural class of Hunter's chemistry program. She received a master's degree from the University of Minnesota in organic chemistry in 1958, the first African American woman to achieve this.