[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 80 (Thursday, May 31, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E927]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     IN HONOR OF BISHOP H.H. BROOKINS--CONCLUDES A LIFE OF SERVICE

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                       HON. JESSE L. JACKSON, JR.

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 31, 2012

  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church's Bishop Hamel Hartford Brookins--widely known as Bishop H.H. 
Brookins--went to be with his heavenly father on Tuesday, May 22. He 
died in Los Angeles at the age of 86.
  I first became acquainted with Bishop H.H. Brookins as the Board 
Chairman of my father's organization, Operation PUSH. He was a great 
preacher with a commitment to civil rights and economic and political 
justice on a national and international scale. He served in a variety 
of AME church districts in the U.S. and Africa throughout his 
distinguished religious career, and was known as an activist, a 
visionary and a great church leader committed to justice for all. He 
was an early supporter and played an important role in mobilizing the 
religious community in my father's two presidential campaigns.
  In 2002 former President Bill Clinton joined a host of religious 
luminaries, elected officials and celebrities in a tribute to Bishop 
Brookins, the son of Mississippi sharecroppers who rose to become a Los 
Angeles and international champion of black political empowerment. The 
former President praised Brookins for his civil rights legacy and 
reminisced about the days when the clergyman ministered in a country 
church in Arkansas while he was the Governor.
  Bishop Brookins became active politically in the 1950s when, as a 
clergyman in Topeka, Kansas he helped to implement the 1954 Brown 
desegregation decision and plan ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 
1965 he worked to quell the Watts riots. He was an architect of Tom 
Bradley's campaigns for Los Angeles mayor and, while working in Africa, 
was ousted from Rhodesia because of his work on behalf of the Zimbabwe 
liberation movement. In 1981 Zimbabwe invited him back for its first 
presidential inauguration.
  Bishop Brookins was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi. He received a 
Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio's Wilberforce University and a 
Bachelor of Divinity degree from Payne Seminary. Prior to his election 
as a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Bishop Brookins 
served as the pastor of the First AME Church of Los Angeles, California 
leading the congregation through the building of a multi-million dollar 
cathedral at its present location on Harvard Boulevard in Los Angeles.
  Bishop Brookins is survived by his wife, the Rev. Rosalynn Kyle 
Brookins, pastor of the Walker Temple AME Church in Los Angeles and 
their son, Wellington Hartford Brookins and two stepchildren, Steven 
Hartford Brookins and the Rev. Francine A. Brookins. His family and 
numerous friends were at his bedside when he died.

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