Newspaper Page Text
Page 7 - Spelman Spotlight
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% TYRONE
BROOKS
34* House District
Tyrone Brooks (3rd from left, bottom row) with some sup
porters.
Brooks Continued
Continued from page 2
Christian Leadership
Conference headquarters at
340 Auburn Avenue in Atlan
ta.
My platform will develop
from the people, Brooks said,
“We're sponsoring a mass
rally next week and I'd like
everybody to come out. 1 hi 1
people of that meeting v,ill
decide what mv platform will
be.”’
The cocoa-brown, wood-
paneled walls of his office are
covered with a variety of wall
paraphernalia: a sticker that
reads, Abolish The Death
penalty, pictures of Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and
Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy
could be seen in several places
on the wall.
“I’ve seen a few changes in
the 34th district,” Brooks said,
he has been a resident of the
district since 1967, “The dis
trict has gone from majority
white to majority black. I
haven’t really seen any im
provements. e.g. substandard
housing — many are leaving
for suburbia. I am concerned
abou tthe slumlords who let
property go down. Atlanta
housing will not enforce the
code.”
There’s a faded brown
newspaper clipping tacked to
Brooks’ wall with a headline
that reads, Klu Klux Klan
Rally. Another clipping, not as
faded, refers to the Pensacola,
Florida murders of five black
men..
“There is an increase in
crime,” Brooks stated. “The
F.B.I. and Atlanta public
safety say that the crime rate
is going down, but this doesn’t
seem so in my district. Old
folks are afraid to go out.
Young ladies of the Atlanta
University Center are in
constant danger of rape.
There’s been an increase in the
drug traffic in the schools.”
This is certainly the year of
the common man’s ascen
dancy in the area of politics:
President Jimmy Carter, “up
from the peanut farm,” and
Tyrone Brooks, national com
munications director for
S.C.L.C., out of what he des
cribes as “a very poor area” of
Warrenton, Georgia and into
the race for the 34th district
seat.
“I consider myself a hard
working person,” Brooks
asserted, “I believe that hard
work pays off. I plan to be the
most active representative
with a full time staff.”
Brooks grew up in a rural en
vironment on a little farm,
current population 2000. He
says that his roots will always
be in Warrenton. He said what
got him out of Warrenton was
Dr. King’s movement.
“I plan to be serious,”
Brooks stated, “Many people
said, “Ty, go into politics now,-
“I don’t plan to be a politician
but a representative of the
people if it takes going to jail.”
It all started for Brooks
when he was in high school, in
1963, in the eleventh grade.
The schools were operating
on the black-white system,
Brooks explained, “The white
system was better equipped and
had better facilities. The black
kids noticed this and began to
take notice of what was going
on around the country.”
Protests against the un
balanced school systems took
place. Brooks, at 16, was iden
tified as the spokesman for the
protest groups.
The incidents made
headlines and put Warrenton
on the map. As a result of his
part in them. Brooks was often
taken down to juvenile
authorities. During this time.
Brooks was being advised by
Dr. King and began to work
with both Dr. King and Rev.
Abernathy. They stayed in
touch and in 1967 Brooks was
offered a position as field
secretary, a position that re
quired that he work closely
with the community.
“My mom and pop were
divorced when I was about
four,” Brooks remembered,
“Mom had to be both mom and
pop. She showed no opposition
(To his activist activities). She
has never been the kind of
mother to say, ‘Hey, don’t do
this.’ She would say, ‘If you do
this, this is what might
happen on one hand and this
on the other.”
“I was arrested for leading
protests against the board of
education, Brooks recalled,
“The police went to her (his
mother) and said, ‘Go over
there and talk to your boy and
tell him not to do what he’s
doing.’ My mother said,
‘Number one, he’s not a boy,
‘number two, I don’t know if I
can convince him, and number
three, he’s old enough to do
what he wants.’
Brooks attended Warenton
high school. He studied fc nr
years at Albany State where
he received his degree in
political science. He studied
one year at Howard University
in the area of communications.
He attended Atlanta
University for one year where
he continued his studies in the
area of political science.
Even though Brooks has
had this education, he says
that most of his education was
obtained on the streets, being
out there with the community,
with the movement.
Brooks is interested in drug-
related crimes.
“We have to prevent drugs
from coming into the city on
the whole,” said Brooks, who
believes that marijuana
should be decriminalized, “We
have to pay more attention to
those bringing it in. We have to
pay more attention to the in
filtration of drugs into the
country, state and community.
Those who bring it in shoudl be
prosecuted to the fullest.”
One thing I’m really worried
about is what we’re doing to
each other. Brooks lamented,
“We don’t love each other. Why
is there such a high black
crime rate? We have to start
speaking on this issue. I do
understand the social im
plications, this is something
the major organizations must
began to deal with.”
Brooks said that another th
ing that worries him is black
colleges being on the brink of
bankruptcy. He said that if the
black colleges were to go out of
business he doesn’t know what
we as black people would do.
He emphasizes that the
black colleges must stay black,
in other words, geared towards
the black person.
Brooks is the youngest can
didate for the 34th district seat.
The others are in their 40’s,
50’s and '60’s.
“I really don’t know what
my opponents are doing,”
Brooks stated, “I’m not run
ning against my opponents.
I’m running for the seat.
People in Atlanta know what
I’ve heen doing. That’s what
people will vote on.”
Brooks was the first to an
nounce his candidacy for the
seat. He said that he was
surprised to see how many
people stepped up to support
him. Young people, old people,
Library
Continued from page 1
and records of African folk
rhythms and Afro-American
music are all also a part of the
extensive collection. Many
scholars, students and tourists
have annually traveled to
Harlem to partake of the
wealth stored in the Schom-
burg Center. Yet, there are
numerous volumes of books
and other materials that
haven’t been accessible to the
public because of lack of space.
These items have been kept in
boxes and on top of files.
Massive deterioration of the
building, lack of air con
ditioner or any proper ven
tilation has endangered not
only the health of the staff
persons but also its
irreplaceable artifacts. In fact,
much of the material has
already been destroyed. A
leaking roof damaged the
Maximilian Collection (slave
narratives) from Haiti during
Hurricane Belle. In the colder
months, because of an im
proper heating facility, the
windows break. The library
was once forced to close
because of lack of heat. A
boiler had been broken for over
a week and no promise of
repair had been made definite.
The N.Y.P.L. is part of a
privately owned foundation
which has 70-million dollars in
investments and annually
receives millions of dollars in
city, state and federal funds. In
an issue of the Worker’s World,
black author Anita King said
that, “The Astor, Lenox and
Tilden Foundations, who are
the owners of the New York
Public Library System are
again using the cry of lack of
funds to further their long
standing policy of racial dis
crimination against the
Schomburg.
In actuality, money which
had been allocated for a new
building for the Schomburg
was taken by the N;Y.P.L. and
used to construct the Lincoln
Center Library in N.Y. which
is located in a prestigious
white area. Renovations have
been done on the 42nd street
library also located in the
same type of area.
Continued on page 8
New Creative Workshop
By Debra Gilmore
A creative writing workshop
has recently been instituted on
Spelman’s campus. Ms. Ruby
Sales of Spelman’s history
department initiated the
workshop because of her own
interest in writing. According
to Ms. Sales, writing is an im
portant avenue of expression
for students. The workshop
will give students the op
portunity to come together and
Each Tuesday the members
of the workshop meet at 6:00 to
discuss and criticize their
writings. Each Thursday at
6:00 the members have a
Coffeehouse which allows
writers in the Spelman com
munity to share their works.
All meetings are held in the
Manley College Center on the
lower level.
New members are invited to
attend the workshop.
share their writings. The
workshop will aid the students
in developing their individual
writing styles. Through the
workshop students will be able
to obtain constructive
criticism of their work. The
workshop will be another
means of augmenting the
intellectual life on Spelman’s
campus.
black people and white people
have rallied to Brooks’ side,”
he says.
Among his many supporters
are councilman Arthur
Langford, the Afro American
Patrolman’s League and Ms.
Jondelle Johnson, youth
coordinator for the Atlanta
chapter of the National As
sociation for the Advancement
of Colored People.
“Many people don’t like
troubling the waters-rising
hell,” said Brooks, discussing
what it takes to get some
things done, “It takes raising
hell. I intend to fight like hell.”
Monthly
Date
Mark it on your calendar. Once
a month — every month. BSE.
Breast self-examination.
Life-saving protection
against one of woman’s deadli
est enemies—breast cancer.
95% of breast cancers are
discovered by women them
selves. And the earlier the
detection and treatment, the
greater the chances of cure.
Ask your local Unit for our
leaflet on breast self-exami
nation. Then mark your cal
endar—BSE. Every month.
American
Cancer Society