California politician Willie Brown told an audience Tuesday at the Dole Institute of Politics about the value of bipartisanship and making friends on both sides of the political aisle.

The program, co-sponsored by KU’s Black Student Union, commemorated Black History Month by sharing the experiences of a black politician with more than 40 years of public service.

Growing up in the then-segregated town of Mineola, Texas, Brown said he eventually moved to California to attend college after his family encouraged him to seek other opportunities outside his home.

“They were certain that there was absolutely no life for anybody who was black in Mineola,” he said.

Brown, a Democratic former speaker of the California State Assembly and former mayor of San Francisco, explained how he worked with Republicans and formed a coalition of 23 Democrats and 28 Republicans to take over the top job in the 80-member state legislative body.

While Democrats were the majority party in 1980, when Brown won the top job, they were split among two nominees for speaker, and Brown was able to woo Republicans by promises of shared resources, committee chairmanships and other perks, whereas his predecessors had not shown Republicans the same respect.

“They were really nasty to them,” he said. “They gave them nothing.”

He told a number of other stories about his 15-year reign as speaker before being term-limited out, referring to some of his adversaries as “mercenaries” who were bad people and how he gerrymandered districts to remove some of them from the statehouse.

Brown recalled how he even managed to hold on to the speakership when Republicans became the majority party, relying on the vote of one Republican loyal to him.

He advised the Republican to take a monthlong vacation to Korea before the vote for speaker, and the member returned to the country hours before the vote, without telling the Republican leadership of his intentions.

After his vote was cast, Brown recalled the scene.

“Bedlam,” Brown recalled. “The Republicans flipped out. They were at a loss.”

He said he was proud of his accomplishments, both as mayor and in state government, and told students it was rewarding to be able to watch his ideas for the betterment of society come about as the result of his work.

“I think if you get the charge to do public service, on the electoral side or on the staff side, you’re really doing the Lord’s work,” Brown said.