State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, born in Washington, Ga., is a longtime civil rights activist first elected to the General Assembly in 1980. At 15, he volunteered with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He became a full-time staffer of the organization in 1967. He was interviewed by staff writer Kristina Torres. His remarks have been edited for space and clarity.
One of the things I learned as a rookie in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is that you have to learn how to defuse situations, particularly confrontations with law enforcement.
In 1970 in Covington, Ga., in Newton County, I had to do just that.
(I was) a young man leading an SCLC project and the sheriff, Junior Odom, he targeted me and he threatened to kill me. Put a shotgun to my face. And if I had not had the benefit of training at SCLC as to how not to allow law enforcement officers to make you angry − because Hosea Williams taught us the only way your enemy can destroy you is make you angry − and I would not allow him to make me angry. I would stay calm and cool, but he put a shotgun to my face and threatened to kill me in 1970.
Five years later, he knew I was in town and he came to apologize. And we went through a lot of discussion in front of the courthouse with people watching us, and he finally asked me the question, can I forgive him for what he did?
I said yes. I said, "I’m a Christian, I was raised as a Christian, my grandfather was a minister and he always taught us: learn how to forgive but never forget."
And that began to tell me something about, as we go forward, how those of us veterans of the movement have to teach our children today not to get angry.
I always say you can’t win the battle on the street. You might win in the courtroom. You might win inside of an administrative office with the mayor, with the chief. But you can’t win out on the street.
So never argue. Stay calm. Stay cool. Don’t lose your temper. Make sure you have all of your documents, particularly if you are driving.
(Brooks talks about working with young people in Atlanta who protested the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.) I told them not all law enforcement officers are your enemy. Many of them are your friends, you have to understand that. I said, they have a job to do. You have a job to do. But you have to understand, if you want to stay alive, these are things you’ve got to do. And I said, first of all, you don’t ever want to fight back. We were taught in freedom school how not to fight back.
I said, "We never struck back. They spat on us. They sicced the dogs on us. We never fought back."
We won, because we didn’t fight back. So I tell them all the time, you cannot win the battle if you resort to the tactics of your enemy.
