The Orange County
chapter of the NAACP will honor Rufus Brooks’ legacy at its annual Freedom Fund dinner this month.
As talks heated up about John Young Parkway expanding into a neighborhood, civil rights activist Rufus Brooks stood against the move with his trademark vigor.
Even when his oldest child, Byron Brooks, who at the time was a graduate student studying planning, tried to explain the need for the road in the region and that a compromise could be beneficial, his father wouldn’t give in.
“To this day, I remember him saying ‘I don’t compromise — that’s somebody else’s job,’ ” said Byron Brooks, now Orlando’s chief administrative officer. “He loved to fight. It resonated with him.”
The Orange County chapter of the NAACP will honor Rufus Brooks’ legacy April 28 at its annual Freedom Fund dinner, the first year the dinner will be named in his honor.
The Brooks family is expected to attend the event scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Rosen Centre Hotel. Tickets are $100 and can be purchased at www. orangecountynaacp.org.
Rufus Brooks died in 2016 after a long illness. He was 88.
“As we’re in the process of moving forward, we need to know our history,” said Orange County NAACP president Beverlye Colson Neale. “He was a great example.”
Rufus Brooks was best known both for his activism and as an elementary school principal at Eccleston Elementary School. He also was involved in of community organizations. scores
Besides his NAACP membership, he was actively involved in the downtown rotary club, a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, the Orange County Democrats and with Presbyterian groups.
“He was a joiner,” Byron Brooks said. “There was a point in time where I thought if there was an organization, he was in it.”
The elder Brooks grew up in Sanford, and went to what was then called Bethune-Cookman College but left school to join the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
Upon returning from battle, he finished his degree at Florida A&M University and embarked on a life centered around education and fighting for equal schooling for children.
“It wasn’t a given, that was a fight to get an equal education,” Byron Brooks said. “He saw it as a critical piece to get a leg up.”
In his college days, Rufus Brooks joined the NAACP and later went on to be president of the Orange County chapter for a time.
The annual dinner is a crucial funding source for the Orange County NAACP and allows it to pay for its community events and projects, Neal said. It also uses the event to honor community service and civil rights leaders.
The Rev. Mark A. Thompson, an activist and TV pundit for MSNBC and CNN, is the guest speaker.
Having the dinner named for Rufus Brooks was a “touching moment, knowing how important the NAACP was to him,” Byron Brooks said.