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Updated the information on my grandfather conviction
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 an [[Escambia County Sheriff's Deputy]], Brooks urged [[Escambia County Sheriff]] [[Royal Untreiner]] to suspend the deputy pending a full investigation. When Untreiner refused, Brooks led a [[Blackwell demonstrations|series of demonstrations]] early the next year, along with local [[SCLC]] leaders [[H. K. Matthews]] and [[Otha Leverette]], that culminated 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]], [[1975]]Brooks took blow after blow in the name of justice as soon as he was arrested the State if FL released him from his job. However Brooks was not dismayed he took his case all the way to the Supreme Court and the conviction was later overturned because the state could not provide any evidence. He was restored back to work with full back pay awarded.
In [[1996]], Brooks accused deputies with the [[Escambia County Sheriff's Office]] 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.
