Photos: Tyrone Brooks through the years

Metro Atlanta

Tyrone Brooks through the years

Photos: Tyrone Brooks through the years

Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, speaks to members of the media following Legislative Day 11 at the State Capitol February 5, 2013, in Atlanta. In March 2015, the Atlanta Democrat resigned his seat in Legislature and the next day pleaded guilty to tax fraud on his 2011 return and no contest to five counts of mail or wire fraud. -- Text by Rhonda Cook, AJC

United States Attorney Sally Yates, flanked by the FBI's Mark F. Giuliano (left) and Special Agent in Charge Veronica Hyman-Pillot, announced that a federal grand jury indicted State Representative Tyrone Brooks on charges that he misappropriated almost $1 million in charitable funds during a press conference at the Richard B. Russell building in Atlanta on May 16, 2013. The indictment alleged that charitable donations to the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials intended to provide literacy training in underserved communities was diverted to Representative Brooks' person use. -- READ MORE: The latest on Brooks' case

Supporters of Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, listen as he holds a press conference at the Moore's Ford Bridge on May 30, 2013. Despite pleading guilty, Brooks insisted he was targeted for “being a civil rights worker.” He also said the charges were an attempt to stop his decades-long push to solve the 1946 lynchings on the Moore’s Ford Bridge in Walton County. No one has been charged with the hangings of two black couples soon after one of them was released from jail having been charged with stabbing and wounding a white man. Brooks has said the charges were brought to draw attention away from the FBI’s failure to close the case. -- Text by Rhonda Cook, AJC

Former Gov. Roy Barnes (left) speaks as Rep. Tyrone Brooks reacts during a hearing on Friday, June 28, 2013. Brooks’ lawyers, including arnes, are pleading for probation, claiming he was a sloppy, inexperienced bookkeeper and over-zealous advocate for his programs and never motivated by greed. -- Text by Rhonda Cook, AJC

Rep. Tyrone Brooks (background) watches the rehearsal of Moore's Ford Lynching Reenactment at Fuse Arts Center in Atlanta on July 17, 2013. Brooks was a decades-long fixture in the Legislature and a voice for the disadvantaged and African Americans since he first worked with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. -- Text by Rhonda Cook, AJC

State Representative Tyrone Brooks discusses the removal of the Thomas Watson statue that would ultimately be permanently relocated across the street from the State Capitol on Oct. 20, 2013, in Atlanta. -- READ MORE: The latest on Brooks' case

The funeral processional of Hosea Williams makes its way down Washington Street on November 22, 2000, in Atlanta, passing the State Capitol with Tyrone Brooks (left) and Jesse Jackson (right) helping to guide the mules. -- READ MORE:The latest on Brooks' case

State Sen. Charles W. Walker, D-Augusta, right, and State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, left, hold up a pre-1956 Georgia State Flag in Walker's Capitol office Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2001, in Atlanta. The state flag was changed back to the pre-1956 design in 2003. Prosecutors acknowledged Brooks’ work with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his efforts “promoting diversity within Georgia’s judicial branch, to helping change the Georgia state flag, to ably representing his district in the Georgia General Assembly for over 30 years.” -- Text by Rhonda Cook, AJC

John Eaves (left) and Brooks (center) talk at a 1980 meeting regarding tensions in Atlanta's black community. Brooks was a fixture in the General Assembly for almost 3½ decades and his profession was always listed in Legislative documents as “civil rights worker." -- Text by Rhonda Cook, AJC

State Rep. Joe Frank Harris, flanked by his wife Elizabeth and son Joe Jr., addresses supporters at his victory party late Aug. 31, 1982, after he beat U.S. Rep. Bo Ginn for the Democratic nomination for governor. Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta (2nd from right), and Lt. Gov. Zell Miller (left) join the Harris family on stage. -- READ MORE: The latest on Brooks' case

Reps. Tyrone Brooks Sr. (D-Atlanta), left, and Mike Coan (R-Lawrenceville) take time following the Jan. 26, 2005, Legislative session to go over a package of bills to remove Jim Crow-era segregation laws from Georgia code. The two co-sponsored the legislation. “His legacy is secure,” said Joe Beasley, another veteran of the civil rights movement. “I think very few people have done as much positive for the state of Georgia, really the nation, like Tyrone. He was not just representing his (legislative) district, he was representing marginalize people all over the state of Georgia.” -- Text by Rhonda Cook, AJC

Brooks (left) gives US Rep. Cynthia McKinney (right) a kiss before she appeared against a backdrop of the Concerned Black Clergy at an Atlanta meeting in April 2006. -- READ MORE:The latest on Brooks' case

Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta) studies his copy of the 2007 budget as the Georgia State House debated the document March 8, 2006, before passing it. -- READ MORE: The latest on Brooks' case

Reverend Joseph Lowery speaks at the State Capitol in 1981 as Julian Bond (left) and Brooks (right) look on. -- READ MORE:The latest on Brooks' case

Brooks stands on his footprints on the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at Ebenezer Baptist Church in January 2008. -- READ MORE:The latest on Brooks' case

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Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, speaks to members of the media following Legislative Day 11 at the State Capitol February 5, 2013, in Atlanta. In March 2015, the Atlanta Democrat resigned his seat in Legislature and the next day pleaded guilty to tax fraud on his 2011 return and no contest to five counts of mail or wire fraud. -- Text by Rhonda Cook, AJC

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