Civil Rights Legend Tyrone Brooks & Maynard Eaton: One on One, Q&A By: Maynard Eaton, Editor in Chief SCLC Magazine
Tyrone Brooks can talk! And armed with a photographic memory, the wordsmith can regale, enthrall, and educate you spinning stories about the SCLC Civil Rights Movement and its colorful and charismatic former leadership. Brooks, a former Georgia State Representative who was elected 18 times, is a riveting raconteur as you will read. Maynard Eaton: The cover photo of this current SCLC National Magazine issue features you and President Charles Steele Jr. in front of the MLK Statue at the Georgia State Capital. “We collaborated to make it happen,” says Dr. Steele. Tyrone, what was your key role in making that statue a reality? Tyrone Brooks: As a disciple of Dr. King, my job was to carry forth the legislation that would bring Dr. King’s statute to the state capitol. In December 2013, I pre-filed the legislation, and ironically that day, Martin Luther King III walked up to me at the front steps. I told him, I’m getting ready to introduce legislation that, if it ever passes, will bring a statue of your father and our leader to the grounds of this building. He looked at me and said “Really”? The next week a reporter called and told me, “The governor is going to embrace your bill and he’s going to do it at Ebenezer Baptist Church on the MLK Holiday.” And the governor did. The legislation passed and Gov. Nathan Deal signed it in the Rotunda in May of 2014, and all of the SCLC family came. Right before then President Steele, Dr. Joseph Lowery, Rev. Albert Love, Rev. Samuel Mosteller, and all the great leaders had come to endorse the legislation under Dr. King’s portrait in the Capitol. So, that’s how it happened and, of course, the Capitol put Dr. King’s statute there in 2017.
SCLC National Magazine/ Fall 2021 Issue
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