Thomas H. Brewer
Age 61
A prominent Black physician and civil rights leader
Columbus, Georgia
February 18, 1956
Dr. Thomas H. Brewer moved to Georgia in 1920. The young physician and new father was intent on starting his first practice alongside other Black medical professionals in downtown Columbus.
Over the decades that followed, Brewer became one of the state’s leading civil rights activists. He co-founded an NAACP chapter, coordinated and fundraised for a lawsuit to secure voting rights for Black people in Georgia, and campaigned to desegregate his local police force and public schools. By 1956, Brewer was a prominent figure and had received death threats for his work.
That year, he also became involved in a heated and drawn-out argument with a white man, Luico Flowers, who owned a department store beneath Brewer’s office. Brewer had been pressuring Flowers to report an incident that occurred in front of the store that Brewer believed involved police brutality, but Flowers disagreed and refused. The situation devolved and, on the evening of Feb. 18, 1956, Flowers fatally shot Brewer at the store.
Initial Investigation
During a brief local investigation, Flowers, who was held without bond, gave a written statement that he had acted in self-defense.
According to Flowers, on the day of the incident, Brewer had threatened that he would come to Flowers’ store to “get” him. Flowers said Brewer appeared at the store around closing time and that Brewer followed him to his office, where Brewer reached into the left pocket of his pants. Believing the doctor might have a weapon, Flowers shot him several times, he told investigators. Flowers said the two had feuded for years but that he did not have any “racial animus” toward Brewer, according to a Department of Justice memo about the case.
Officers who responded to the shooting found a .32 caliber revolver in Brewer’s left front pants pocket. Three witnesses corroborated parts of Flowers’ story, but all said Flowers was the one who had followed Brewer to the office.
Less than two weeks later, a county grand jury declined to indict Flowers on a murder charge.
The killing and subsequent failure to indict Flowers devastated Columbus’ Black community. More than 2,000 people attended Brewer’s funeral, and many, including his family, left the city.
Nearly a year after the shooting, under mysterious circumstances, Flowers was discovered across the street from his store with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
Till Act Status
The FBI opened an investigation into the circumstances of Brewer’s death in 2008 but closed the case after less than a year. A case agent retrieved the local investigative files, as well as some FBI records for both Brewer’s and Flowers’ shootings, according to a DOJ memo; the memo does not mention any interviews or other investigative work associated with the case’s re-opening.
With Flowers dead, the DOJ concluded the matter could not be prosecuted under federal criminal civil rights statutes. Even if Flowers were alive, there was not enough evidence to prove the shooting was motivated by race, nor to contradict the claim that Flowers had acted in self-defense, according to the DOJ memo. In any case, the relevant statute of limitations had run out.
Case Status closed
Closed 04/06/2009
Themes
- Closed All Subjects Deceased
- Closed Cases
- Men
About the Project
This multiplatform investigation draws upon more than two years of reporting, thousands of documents and dozens of first-hand interviews. FRONTLINE spoke to family and friends of the victims, and witnesses, some of whom had never been interviewed; current and former Justice Department officials and FBI agents, state and local law enforcement; lawmakers, civil-rights leaders and investigative journalists, to explore the Department of Justice’s reopening of civil rights-era cold cases under the 2008 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
In addition to an examination of the federal effort, the project features the first comprehensive, interactive list of all those whose cases were reopened by the Department of Justice. Today, the list stands at 151 names. Among the victims: voting rights advocates, veterans, Louisville’s first female prosecutor, business owners, mothers, fathers, and children.
The project consists of a web-based interactive experience, serialized podcast, a touring augmented-reality exhibit, documentary and companion education curriculum for high schools and universities.
A project like Un(re)solved would not be possible without the historic and contemporary contributions of universities, civil rights groups, and the press, particularly the Black press, who have ensured the ongoing public record of racist violence in the United States. To pay homage to these groups, the web interactive begins with a quote from journalist, activist and researcher Ida B. Wells, one of the first to document with precision the horrors of racial terror in America. “The way to right wrongs,” she wrote, “is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
At the outset of the project, FRONTLINE forged a relationship with Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ), bringing them on as an academic partner. Launched in 2007 by Distinguished Law Professor Margaret Burnham, CRRJ is a mission-driven program of interdisciplinary teaching, research and policy analysis on race, history, and criminal justice. Their work has expanded beyond the names on the Justice Department’s list, archiving documents in over 1,000 cases of racially motivated homicides.
With support from the CRRJ, FRONTLINE reporters gathered what could be known about the individuals on the list, conducting interviews with family, friends and witnesses, delving into newspaper archives and gathering documentation including headstone applications, draft cards and archival photographs.
At the heart of the project has been a drive to center the voices of the families of those on the list. FRONTLINE partnered with StoryCorps to record nearly two dozen oral histories with victims’ next of kin, which are featured both in the web-based interactive and traveling AR exhibit. These oral histories will also be archived in the National Library of Congress.
To lead the creative vision for the web experience and installation, FRONTLINE partnered with Ado Ato Pictures, a premier mixed reality studio founded by artist, filmmaker, and technologist Tamara Shogaolu.
Shogaolu rooted the visuals in the powerful symbolism of trees. In the United States, trees evoke the ideal of liberty, but also speak to an oppressive history of racially motivated violence. In Persian myth, trees are humanity’s ancestors, while in Toraja, Indonesia, they serve as sacred burial sites.
“I was really inspired by looking at the role of the tree as a symbol in American history” Shogaolu said. “It’s been looked at as a symbol of freedom, we look at it as a connector between generations, and also there’s the association of trees with racial terror.” When designing the creative vision for Un(re)solved Shogaolu wondered whether she might be able to reclaim the symbol of the tree. “As a person of color, we’re often terrified of being in isolated places in the woods. And I thought it was kind of crazy that there are natural environments that instinctually give great fear because of this connection with racial terror and I wanted to reclaim that — to turn these into beautiful spaces.”
Un(re)solved weaves imagery of trees, which also recall family ties, into patterns and textures from the American tradition of quilting. Among enslaved African Americans forbidden to read or write, quilts provided an important space to document family stories. Today, quilting remains a creative outlet rich with story and tradition for many American communities.
We invite you to enter this forest of quilted memories — a testimony to the lives of these individuals, and the multi-generational impact of their untimely, unjust loss.
(Credits to come)