Articles

AME Bishop H. Hartford Brookins, Civil Rights activist, dies at 86

Category: National Published on Friday, 08 June 2012 10:16 Written by NNPA News Service

(NNPA)—Hamel Hartford Brookins, a bishop for 30 years of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a veteran civil rights activist, died on May 22 in Los Angeles, Calif. He was 86.

Bishop Hamel Hartford Brookins (AP Photo)

Brookins, the son of sharecroppers, helped implement school desegregation in Kansas following the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, was one of the architects of Operation PUSH with Rev. Jesse Jackson and played a key role in the campaign of Tom Bradley to become the first African American mayor of Los Angeles.

And as a minister of an AME church in Arkansas, he became friends in the 1980s with future President Bill Clinton.

“I still can’t quite get used to the fact that you’re wearing purple,” he said at a 2002 Beverly Hilton event, referring to Brookins’ status as a bishop. “And I got to be president,” he added.

“I learned a lot by your side, had a lot of good times. But my heart will always be with you, because in sunshine and in rain, you were always with me,” the former president said. “You helped me make the country a more free, better and united place.”

Before becoming bishop, he served 13 years as pastor of First AME Church of Los Angeles and led the congregation through the construction of a multimillion-dollar cathedral.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Wilberforce University and a bachelor’s in divinity from Payne Seminary. Survivors include his wife, the Rev. Rosalynn Kyle Brookins, pastor of Walker Temple AME Church in Los Angeles, one son, Sir- Wellington Hartford Brookins, and two step children, Steven Hartford Brookins and Rev. Francine A. Brookins.

A public viewing was held at the Allen House Chapel in Los Angeles on May 31. His funeral was at the First AME Church on June 1.