State Rep. Tyrone Brooks hints at retirement, prepares to face federal charges

One of Gold Dome’s longest-serving lawmakers wants to focus efforts on unsolved lynching

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One of the Gold Dome’s longest-serving lawmakers could soon retire from public office, leave Atlanta behind, and devote his attention to a lynching case that’s remained unsolved for nearly seven decades.

State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, says he’s thinking about moving on from the General Assembly to continue his work on investigating the Moore’s Ford Bridge lynchings, during which a mob participated in the killing of four African Americans in 1946, but no charges were ultimately filed.

The longtime civil rights leader who worked alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1980. Over the weekend SCLC Communications Director Maynard Eaton sent out a press blast on behalf of Brooks, quoting the lawmaker as saying “35 years is enough. I’m resigning my seat and moving to Monroe, Ga to devote my full attention to creating a Moore’s Ford Bridge Museum.

Brooks told Atlanta Progressive News that he would also work on opening the Moore’s Ford Bridge Museum Educational Learning Center inside an old school administration building in Monroe. Being based there, he said, would allow him to continue interviewing people involved with the case and would be the “only way to honor Dr. King.”

It’s unclear yet if Brooks would resign from office. The state rep told APN that he’ll likely finish his term, but not run for re-election. The AJC reports that Brooks hasn’t decided if he’ll run for re-election. We’ve reached out to Brooks for comment as well. If the lawmaker moves before 2016, he would have to step down, prompting a special election in a district that runs from south Buckhead to southwest Atlanta.

Sometime in April, Brooks is expected to stand trial to face federal criminal charges for committing mail, wire, and tax fraud and filing false tax returns. Brooks, who was indicted in May 2013 by a federal grand jury, had allegedly misappropriated more than $1 million from two nonprofits, Universal Humanities Inc. and the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, by using charitable donations to pay for personal expenses.