Georgia State Representative Tyrone Brooks has worked
tirelessly toward the solving of the murders of the Moore’s
Ford Bridge lynching that occurred in 1946 when a white
mob pulled Roger and Dorothy Malcom and George and Mae Murray
Dorsey from their car and shot them in cold blood. The killers then cut open
the stomach of a 7-month pregnant Mrs. Malcom and murdered her unborn
child.
Through annual re-enactments, the unsolved murder
remains fresh in the public’s mind.
In 2007,
after the April 4th march to commemorate the
assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Brooks, along
with a coalition of activists, asked U.S. Congressman
John Lewis to sponsor legislation that would work toward
the solving of this heinous crime. Thus, the Emmett
Till Bill was born. This bill would
set aside more than $100 million for new prosecutors,
FBI agents, and other resources to re-open unsolved
murders from the civil rights era. The bill passed in the
House of Representatives and is awaiting passage in the
Senate, after which
President Bush has agreed to sign the Emmett Till
Bill into law.
Most promising is the fact that the
Moore’s
Ford
Bridge lynching is #1
on the list of unsolved murders as it involved 4 adults
and an unborn child, a particularly heinous crime. For this
tireless and ongoing effort to bring nationwide
attention to this case and justice for those who can no
longer speak for themselves, The Georgia Informer will
present Tyrone with its 2007 Man of the Year Award on
January 19,
2008 at 12
noon at Center Hill Baptist Church in Macon,
Georgia.
Since
becoming a volunteer with the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference at the tender age of 15, Tyrone
Brooks has dedicated his entire life to the pursuit of
civil and human equality for all people. A lifelong
member of Pleasant
Grove
Baptist
Church in
Warrenton,
Georgia, Tyrone
became a full time staffer at the SCLC in 1967 under the
leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. With mentors and close
associates like Dr. King, Hosea Williams, Rev. Ralph
David Abernathy, and Dr. Joseph Lowery, Brooks has
served in many positions within the organization, both
locally and nationally. For almost 50 years,
Tyrone has worked tirelessly in the struggle for
freedom, justice, and equality and has been jailed 65
times for his efforts.
Brooks also played a major role in
changing the Georgia state flag by introducing
legislation in the state House of Representatives.
This resulted in the changing of the state flag from
the Confederate version with the rebel emblem to a flag not
reminiscent of the Confederacy.
An elected member of the Georgia
House of Representatives since 1980, Brooks serves on the Appropriations, Economic Development and Tourism, and
Retirement and Special Rules Committees. Brooks led the
campaign against Apartheid in
South
Africa by pushing
legislation to stop all money coming from
Georgia to their government and was
arrested at the South African Embassy along with Ralph
David Abernathy, Dick Gregory, and others on
Thanksgiving Day in 1976 and jailed for protesting the
Soweta massacre
while calling for an end to Apartheid. Brooks is also
the President of GABEO (Georgia Association of Black
Elected Officials) where he has worked alongside other elected
officials to bring about freedom, justice, and equality for
all people.
