A day after a federal grand jury indicted him on accusations of stealing from charitable groups, Tyrone Brooks was on the picket line Friday outside an Atlanta Piggly Wiggly.
The longtime state legislator was doing what he’s done for decades: fighting a perceived injustice.
At the Georgia Capitol, the 67-year-old Brooks is among last remaining links to the bygone civil rights era of the 1960s. Brooks was just 15 when he volunteered for Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and he’s been a warrior for the cause ever since.
But the 30-count federal indictment handed down Thursday paints a different picture.
Prosecutors say Brooks bilked charitable groups, including one he’d set up to do things like combat illiteracy among underprivileged kids, over a 17-year period. Prosecutors say Brooks funneled nearly $1 million in donations to personal accounts and used them to pay for expenses like home repair, dry cleaning and entertainment. He was charged with wire fraud, mail fraud and tax fraud.
Brooks plans to address the charges Thursday at Moore’s Ford Bridge in Walton County, the site of an unsolved lynching and one stoked with civil rights symbolism. Brooks has said his work to bring the killers to justice has uncovered evidence that the FBI might have been involved in the 1946 killing of two black couples and that the federal investigation that led to his indictment was retribution.
Brooks told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday that his life had been dedicated to service.
“I have given more than I have ever received,” Brooks said. “And I have done everything to make this a better world for all of us. I have done everything but die. I have done everything but die to make this a better world for all of us.”
But even friends glumly acknowledge Brooks’ many accomplishments could be eclipsed by the federal charges
“It’s sad, but unfortunately his reputation will suffer,” said Bob Holmes, a former Democratic state legislator and political consultant in Atlanta. “Bill Clinton isn’t remembered for balancing the budget, he’s remembered for Monica Lewinsky.”
This isn’t the first time Brooks has faced questions about his finances.
In the late 1980s, Brooks, then a state lawmaker, collected about $56,000 from Georgia Power Co. for work as an economic development consultant. Brooks said he acted as a liaison between the power company and disadvantaged communities. He defended the work, but a watchdog group at the time suggested it was inappropriate. Brooks was the only public official under contract with the utility at the time.
In 1994, he drew heat when he crossed party lines to endorse Republican Guy Millner in the race for governor. The criticism escalated when it was revealed that the Republican Party was paying Brooks’ consulting firm $52,500. Former Sen. Eugene Walker of Decatur at the time excoriated Brooks as a “political mercenary” and there were suggestions that Brooks had sold his endorsement, allegations he strenuously denied.
His personal finances have always been something of a mystery. He appears to have lived on little more than his $17,000 state legislative salary, according to financial disclosures filed with state officials. He said earlier this year, in response to questions from reporters, that he has other income from various business interests that don’t have to be disclosed.
Elected to the state Legislature in 1981, Brooks is perhaps best remembered for his crusade to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the Georgia flag.
“He was critical to that fight,” said Bobby Kahn, chief of staff to former Gov. Roy Barnes when Barnes muscled the change through.
But Kahn said even before the battle over the flag, he knew Brooks as an expert in the art of grassroots politics. Brooks provided Kahn — then a novice political operative — invaluable help getting Robert Benham elected to the state Court of Appeals. Benham, who now sits on the Georgia Supreme Court, became the first African-American elected to statewide office in Georgia since Reconstruction.
“He’s old school. He’s old style,” Kahn said of Brooks. “He knew people everywhere. He would give me all these names of people to talk to and I would be scribbling them on the backs of napkins and then he would call back to check up that I had followed through with every single one of them.”
For the past two decades, Brooks has been the president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, one of the groups he is accused of defrauding. The other is a private charity, Universal Humanities, which Brooks also runs.
GABEO has in many ways become synonymous with Brooks, who can often be spotted outside the Capitol wearing a GABEO baseball cap over his trademark shock of unruly hair.
In the summertime, GABEO gathers in Savannah. It’s a mandatory pilgrimage for just about any Democrat seeking elected office. Blacks make up about 50 percent of the electorate in Democratic primaries, and GABEO — and Brooks — are seen as a crucial gateway to leaders in that voter-rich community.
“It’s on the checklist of things that you did,” said Rick Dent, a Democratic political strategist who worked on the gubernatorial campaigns of Zell Miller and Mark Taylor.
“He’s one of the guys you have to check in with, otherwise you could have a huge public problem.”
In recent years, Brooks has become known for championing the annual re-enactment of the lynching at Moore’s Ford Bridge in eastern Georgia. Its one of the more notorious unsolved civil rights cases, and Brooks and GABEO sponsor the annual re-creation to keep attention on solving the crime.
Former state Rep. Rob Teilhet, D-Smyrna, who served with Brooks in the House and has attended the event, said he was always struck with Brooks’ demeanor.
“He had a real, extraordinary level of humility and modesty,” Teilhet said. “I knew who he was and had followed his work closely. When you meet somebody with that kind of background, you maybe expect something other than humility and modesty.”
What he found, Teilhet said, was “the sweetest and most unassuming guy.”
It’s a sign of the power of Brooks’ legacy that even Republicans’ response to the indictment was measured.
“Anytime a public official is charged with a crime, it’s a very sad day. It’s especially sad when that public official has rendered extraordinary public service to a great cause, as Representative Brooks has. It’s time now to let the justice system work its course,” House Speaker David Ralston, a Republican from Blue Ridge, said.
In announcing the charges, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, called it “a disappointing day.”
“Representative Brooks has done much good in his life, both as a state legislator and civil rights leader,” Yates said.
On Friday, with news of the indictment swirling, Brooks joined protesters outside a Piggly Wiggly on Candler Road in DeKalb County protesting reports of unsafe food handling at the aging store, which serves a predominantly low-income area.
“Of course I’m here,” Brooks said. “Where else would I be?”
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