Brown was born in 1934 in The Bronx, New York.  According to Brown, when she was young, she contracted tuberculosis, and was treated by Arthur Logan. Logan was a young African-American in his intern year of residency, and lived in Browns building. Browns later inspiration to study science came from asking Logan how one could become a doctor. He replied, "Oh, you study science".  Brown excelled in particular in chemistry, scoring 98 out of 100 on the New York State Regents chemistry exam. She attended New Dorp High School on Staten Island, and graduated in 1952. Brown earned her bachelors degree in chemistry at Hunter College in 1956, one of two African Americans in the inaugural class of Hunters chemistry program. In 1958, she became the first African American woman to achieve a masters degree from the University of Minnesota in organic chemistry. Her masters thesis was entitled, “Study of Dye and Ylide Formation in Salts of 9-(P-dimethylaminophenyl) Fluorene.”