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Look inside for health-related news for you and your family on page 6 May 29 - June 4, 2014
Volume 86 • Issue 42
Rep. Tyrone Brooks Spearheads Passage of King Statue Legislation
By Terry Shropshire If anyone possessed the stature and qualifications to speak on, and act on behalf of, the venerated nonviolent revolutionary Martin Luther King Jr., it would be someone like State Rep. Tyrone Brooks. Brooks (D-Atlanta) was first inspired to activism as an adolescent growing up in middle Georgia. So active was young Brooks that he was recruited to join Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference organization, just months before the iconic Baptist minister was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. Brooks also holds an annual protest march on the anniversary of King’s death on April 4 at the Ford Moore’s Bridge near Macon, Ga., in an effort to bring to justice the perpetrators of the bloodbath against innocent black citizens there in the late 1960s, one of the last items on Dr. King’s agenda before he was murdered at the Lorraine Hotel. So it was apropos that Brooks would sponsor and successfully usher a bill through the Georgia state legislature to have a statue erected at the capital in Atlanta to permanently pay homage to the late, legendary civil rights leader. Brooks’ reasoning behind championing the construction of
an edifice in King’s honor is very simple, yet extremely powerful. “He is the greatest man I have ever known,” Brooks said resolutely, pausing to let the words marinate in the air. “People always look at me, like, ‘oh.’ But Martin Luther King is the greatest man to walk on this planet since Jesus Christ. I don’t know of anybody greater than Martin King except Christ. And I really believe that. I really believe that he was sent by God to do a task for 39 years and then God moved him out.” Gov. Nathan Deal signs the bill to authorize the construction of a statue honoring MLK at the state capitol. Martin Luther King III (2nd from left) and daughter Bernice King (in blue dress top) look on. The bill to erect a statue to honor Dr. King passed the House 173-3, Brooks said, and quickly moved through the state senate. Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday, May 27 signed into law House Bill 1080, legislation that authorizes the placement of a statue honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the state Capitol. The privately funded project will be led by the Georgia Capitol Arts Standards Commission, which will undertake the statue’s design and fund-raising efforts. “Every year in January we honor Dr. King, who inspired our nation with his dream of hope, justice and human rights,” said
Deal. “This legislation goes beyond our words of praise by placing a physical monument at the state Capitol to commemorate this great Georgian’s legacy for many years to come. Not many states can boast a native son who merited a national holiday, but we Georgians can. Dr. King is a point of pride for our state, and he deserves to hold a place of honor on our Capitol grounds. I commend the General Assembly for its partnership in finding the proper tribute.” King is already the only non-president to have his likeness erected on the Washington Mall, adjacent the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, as well as a statue sitting prominently at his alma mater, Morehouse College. “[Dr. King] is known around the world and he is honored around the world in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Central and South America. But I say the greatest honor that we can pay Dr. King since Ronald Reagan signed the national holiday bill, that was passed by the Senate … to make his birthday a national holiday, is to honor him in his hometown,” King grew up just a few blocks from the state capitol on Auburn Avenue. Legends and heroes are very rarely celebrated at home. It’s hard to be honored at home, for some reason. People take you for granted. (continue on page 2)