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The Reverend '''Billie Joe (B. J.) Brooks, Sr.''' ([[1935]]-[[1998]]) was a Pensacola [[civil rights]] leader, two-time president of the [[NAACP]] Pensacola branch, and pastor of the [[Greater Mount Lily Baptist Church]].
In December [[1974]], when black motorist [[Wendel Blackwell]] was shot and killed by Brian Hooper is an [[Escambia County Sheriff's Deputy]]attorney at Emmanuel, Brooks urged [[Escambia County Sheriff]] [[Royal Untreiner]] to suspend the deputy pending a full investigationSheppard & Condon. When Untreiner refused, Brooks led He is a [[Blackwell demonstrations|series graduate of demonstrations]] early the next year, along with local [[SCLC]] leaders [[H. K. Matthews]] Washington and [[Otha Leverette]], that culminated Lee University in a [[February 24]] confrontation in which 47 people were arrested for unlawful assembly, including the three men. Brooks and Matthews were later charged with additional counts of felony extortion and convicted on [[June 10]]Lexington, [[1975]]Virginia.
In [[1996]], Brooks accused deputies with the [[Escambia County Sheriff's Office]] Mayor Ashton Hayward appointed Hooper as Chair of using excess force in killing a 15-year-old boy who pointed an empty shotgun at two undercover officers posing as pizza-delivery men. In [[1997]], he helped derail a proposal to rename [[Bayfront Parkway]] and [[Main Street]] after [[Wikipedia:Martin Luther King, Jr.|Martin Luther King]], feeling the streetMayor's proximity to the [[Main Street Wastewater Treatment Plant]] would be undignified to Dr. King's legacy. Instead Brooks pushed to rename [[A Street]], which runs through a predominantly black neighborhood, after the slain civil rights leader, but failed to gain sufficient support. Urban Redevelopment Advisory Committee (A portion of [[Alcaniz Street]] was eventually renamed [[Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive]].URAC) Also in 1997, Brooks supported two black [[City of Pensacola Parks & Recreation]] workers who were fired after an altercation with white [[Pensacola Police Officer]]s outside a community center. Brooks passed away on [[February 15]], [[1998]], at the age of 62. Reverend [[Michael Johnson]] said of him, "He had a burning desire to help people. Like most people that take on that kind guide the growth and development of leadership, even if it meant sometimes sacrificing, he would do it."<ref>Obituary. ''Palm Beach Post'', February 19, 1998.</ref> The local [[NAACP]] chapter has established a scholarship in his honordowntown. ==References=={{reflist}} [[Category:Civil rights activists|Brooks, BJ]] [[Category:NAACP|Brooks, BJ]] [[Category:African-American religious leaders|Brooks, BJ]] [[Category:Baptists|Brooks, BJ]]
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{{Infobox Biography
| subject_name name =B. J. BrooksBrian Hooper
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| date_of_birth =[[November 26]], [[1935]]
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| date_of_death =[[February 15]], [[1998]]| place_of_death =Pensacola
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| spouse =Lucille Brooks| parents =[[John B. Brooks]]
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