In 1921, at the height of the Ku Klux Klan's power in Ohio, Brown supported federal civil rights legislation to stop the lynching of African-Americans. In 1938, prior to his first election as Representative, he was one of only 67 (of 870) candidates for Representative along with only 8 (out of 96) sitting Senators to pledge support to the NAACP for federal anti-lynching legislation, the legislative precursor to modern civil rights legislation. In 1940, during debate of the anti-lynching bill he stated: