Lloyd, Craig

Description

Encyclopedia article about Thomas Brewer, an African American physician, who was a leader in the drive for racial equality in Columbus from the 1920s until his assassination on February 18, 1956, which was widely believed to have resulted from his political activism. Brewer, whose death had considerable impact on local race relations, is recognized as a martyr of the national civil rights movement. Born in Saco, Alabama, he attended high school and college in Selma before earning his medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1920 he joined a thriving black medical community in Columbus, Georgia. He was instrumental in founding a black professional men's service and civic club, Social-Civic-25 Club, in Columbus as well as a local chapter of the NAACP. He led the attack on the all-white primary system in the state of Georgia which resulted in the winning federal court case, King v. Chapman et al., in 1945 and 1946, and he worked for black voter registration, the hiring of black police officers in Columbus, and racial integration of both the public schools, following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in May 1954, and other public facilities. Brewer received death threats as early as the late 1940s and was shot and killed in 1956. Luico Flowers claimed to have shot Brewer in self-defense and his story was accepted by police and a grand jury.The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia...

Record Contributed By

New Georgia Encyclopedia

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia