Hilliard Brooks Jr.

Case summary

Incident

On Saturday, Aug. 12, 1950, Hilliard Brooks Jr. spent the day with his wife, Estelle, shopping for groceries and paying bills in Montgomery. Later that afternoon, Brooks returned downtown for an additional errand. He attempted to board a bus around 3:45.

Eyewitness accounts differ on the origin and nature of what occurred on the bus, and are mostly limited to those gathered by the Montgomery Police Department (MPD) during an internal investigation of their own officer. The bus driver, C.L. Hood, told MPD detectives that when Brooks got on the bus, “He was drinking and doing a lot of talking. I would not let him put his fare in and told him he could not ride.”

Another witness told police that “the bus driver put his hand over the fare box and would not let the man put his fare in the box.” An additional eyewitness said she heard Brooks ask “why can’t I get on the bus?” as he continued to try to give Hood his fare. Reporting since 2019, including from the Montgomery Advertiser and Washington Post, states that the altercation began because Brooks entered the bus through the front door, rather than the back door that Black passengers were relegated to on segregated buses.

In a Dec. 10, 2009 interview with the FBI, Estelle Brooks told agents that the confrontation began “because after paying his fare, he did not want to exit the bus and use the rear entrance of the bus to get to his authorized section.” She also stated that Brooks had not had any alcohol the day he was killed. Estelle Brooks testified about Hilliard Brooks’ death during a 1956 Montgomery bus boycott case. “He just got on before the bus driver told him, the bus was crowded, he asked for his dime back and he [the bus driver] wouldn’t give his dime back,” she recalled.

In his statement to police, Hood said that after other passengers assisted Brooks off the bus, Hood closed the door and Brooks stood at the window “cursing me and everyone on the bus.” Hood then called to Officer Marvin Mills, who went around the bus and grabbed Brooks by the arm. One witness told police they heard Mills ask Brooks, “Boy, what are you doing here?” While some witnesses told police that Brooks “kept trying to grab the officer and his gun,” others stated that Mills hit Brooks hard enough to knock him to the ground, and then drew his gun once Brooks attempted to stand back up. Mills told detectives in an interview later that day that Hood told him “one of the negroes has tried to get on him and that the negro had been using bad language in the presence of the ladies.” He stated that Brooks advanced on him and “pulled my whistle and chain from my shirt and I shot him.”

Mills fired at Brooks, shooting him in the stomach. The bullet passed through Brooks and struck two bystanders, James C. Murphy and Bessie Mae Robinson. Both Murphy and Robinson were hospitalized for leg wounds from the bullet.

Newspapers reported that “hundreds of people” were on the street and witnessed the shooting. Thelma Robertson, a white woman who was getting off a bus when she witnessed the altercation, later told reporters: “I do not think the policeman shot in self-defense. I think he took the law into his own hands. I did not see the boy attempt to strike the policeman.” Reporters also quoted white witness George W. Ruppert: “It was a shame. The Negro never had a chance. The cop could have used a black-jack or anything.”

Witnesses told newspaper reporters that Brooks was in “a semi-conscious condition” when an ambulance picked him up. When his wife met him at Oak Street General Hospital, a nurse told Estelle Brooks that she would not treat her husband unless she paid the nurse $50. Estelle Brooks went home and retrieved the cash for the nurse.

Brooks was not conscious while in the hospital on Saturday. He woke the next morning and asked his wife to bring their children from home. He died at 3:34 p.m. on Aug. 13 while she was picking up their sons. Brooks was buried alongside family in Mount Zion AME Church Cemetery in Pine Level, Alabama.

Aftermath

The MPD conducted a week-long investigation of its officer, interviewing 17 witnesses. Before the investigation started, Police Chief G.J. Ruppenthal told the Alabama Journal that Mills had “never been accused of hitting anyone or firing at anyone before, and he’s had plenty of opportunities” in his two years on the force. The police board determined that it was “a matter of regret that Hilliard Brooks lost his life in his attack on Officer Mills, but we cannot say that the Police Officer acted other than in self-defense.”

Montgomery Mayor John Goodwyn reviewed the board’s investigation. He agreed with the board that the case should be referred to the Circuit Solicitor of Montgomery County to be presented before a grand jury. The Alabama Tribune reported on Sept. 1 that a “Montgomery county grand jury examined evidence.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) noted in 2010, "It is unclear from media reports whether or not the case was ever presented to a state grand jury."

On Aug. 14, 1950 FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sent a memorandum to Assistant Attorney General James M. McInerney alerting him to an Aug. 13 Montgomery Advertiser article about the shooting. Citing intense media interest, Hoover launched a preliminary inquiry. Special Agent Spencer H. Robb completed a report that the FBI shared with the DOJ on Aug. 22. Robb conducted one interview with Robertson, the witness quoted in the papers, but otherwise relied on the interviews the MPD shared with him from its investigation. After reading Robb’s report, McInerney informed Hoover that the report did not “indicate that a violation of Federal statutes is involved,” and closed the case.

The Alabama Citizen reported that Brooks’ killing was the 10th killing of a Black person by Alabama police that year and that, “Civic leaders here said that police brutality has been on the upswing since the May 1 Democratic primary in which certain candidates, most of them defeated, raised the race issue.” Residents protested Brooks’ killing before the Montgomery City Commission on Aug. 15, asking that the MPD hire Black officers. The Amvets Post No. 16 wrote letters protesting Brooks’ killing and organized a registration drive for Black voters on Aug. 17, when some people held signs reading, “Ballots Will Stop Bullets.” The Atlanta Daily World reported that, “new interest was being shown by Montgomery Negro citizens in the ballot,” with 260 people applying the week of Aug. 14.

Mills died on May 30, 1993.

On July 1, 2008, the FBI began a review of Brooks’ case as part of the DOJ’s Cold Case Initiative and the Emmett Till Act. The DOJ closed the case on April 28, 2010 upon determining it was no longer prosecutable as Mills had died.

In 2019, the Equal Justice Initiative dedicated a new memorial that honored Brooks and others killed in racist attacks during the 1950s. His wife, Estelle Brooks, attended. She told reporters, “He was a wonderful husband. I miss him so much.”

Estelle Brooks died on May 11, 2026, just a few days shy of her 98th birthday.

Media Gallery

Case summaries are compiled using government records and archival primary source material. These include, but are not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, newspaper articles, court filings, census records, birth and death certificates, transcripts, and press releases. In many cases, the records contain contradictory assertions.

In addition to the incident files associated with this case, this summary relied on the following:

Archival Sources

• Alabama Attorney General’s Office Montgomery Bus Boycott trial transcript, 1956, Government Record Collections, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama

Genealogical Records

• Alabama, United States, Deaths and Burials Index, 1946, 1950
• Marriage Records for Montgomery County, Alabama, United States, 1946
• Population Schedule for Montgomery County, Alabama, United States Federal Census, 1930, 1940, 1950
• Social Security Administration, Social Security Death Index, Master File, Alabama, United States, 1980
• World War II Draft Registration Cards, Alabama, 1946

Newspaper Articles

• “Alabama Police Board Clears Patrolman of Veteran Slaying,” Atlanta Daily World, September 6, 1950
• “Alabama Registrars Still Seek to Bar Negro Voters,” Atlanta Daily World, September 6, 1950
• “Capital Negro Shot by Policeman Dies,” Birmingham Post-Herald (Birmingham, AL), August 14, 1950
• “EJI Unveils New Monument Honoring 1950s Lynching Victims,” WFSA News, April 29, 2019
• “Free 2nd Dixie Cop in Slaying,” Chicago Defender, September 23, 1950
• “Grand Jury Probes Killing of Man by White Patr’lman [sic],” Alabama Tribune (Montgomery, AL), September 1, 1950
• “Gunshot Wound Fatal to Negro,” Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), August 14, 1950
• “Investigation Begun of Fatal Wounding of Negro by Police,” Decatur Daily (Decatur, AL), August 14, 1950
• “Investigation Set in Police Shooting,” Huntsville Times (Huntsville, AL), August 14, 1950
• “Mayor Is Studying Shooting Report,” Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), August 22, 1950
• “Montgomery Cop’s Slaying of Negro Vet Termed Malicious,” Atlanta Daily World, August 17, 1950
• “Montgomery Negroes Ask for Negro Police,” Atlanta Daily World, August 23, 1950
• “Negro Shot, Seriously Wounded on Bus,” Birmingham News, August 13, 1950
• “Negro Policemen Asked by Group,” Alabama Journal (Montgomery, AL), August 15, 1950
• “Negro Wounded,” Decatur Daily (Decatur, AL), August 13, 1950
• “Negroes Seek Places on Montgomery Force,” Dothan Eagle (Dothan, AL), August 17, 1950
• “Negros Carry Signs to Registration Booths,” Birmingham News, August 18, 1950
• “New Memorial Dedicated at Peace and Justice Memorial Center,” Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), April 29, 2019
• “Officer Cleared in Death Negro at Montgomery,” Opelika-Auburn News (Opelika, AL), August 24, 1950
• “Officer Cleared in Negro’s Death,” Alabama Journal (Montgomery, AL), August 24, 1950
• “Police Cleared in Vet’s Shooting,” Alabama Citizen (Birmingham, AL), September 2, 1950
• “Report Is Due Today on ‘Shooting’ Probe,” Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), August 21, 1950
• “Shot by Officer, Negro Man Dies,” Anniston Star (Anniston, AL), August 14, 1950
• “Shooting Brings Request to Hire Negro Policemen,” Opelika-Auburn News (Opelika, AL), August 17, 1950
• Jonece Starr Dunigan, “Alabama Lynching Memorial Expands with New Monument,” *Al.com*, April 30, 2019
• E. G. Jackson, “Strange As It Seems,” Alabama Tribune (Montgomery, AL), August 18, 1950
• Jack Moore, “‘This is Personal’-- Former WTOP Reporter’s Memoir Recounts Family’s Role in Montgomery Bus Boycott,” WTOP News, May 11, 2020
• Allen Rankin, “The Triple Shooting on Dexter,” Alabama Journal (Montgomery, AL), August 16, 1950
• Chris Talbott, “FBI May Reopen Cold Civil Rights Murder Cases,” Tuscaloosa News (Tuscaloosa, AL), February 23, 2007
• Jeanne Theoharis, “Rosa Parks: What to Know About the Lifelong Activist and Civil Rights Icon,” Teen Vogue, February 3, 2023
• Jeanne Theoharis and Say Burgin, “Pitting Rosa Parks Against Claudette Colvin Distorts History,” Washington Post, October 19, 2022
• Andrew J. Yawn, “‘His Life Meant Something’: EJI Memorializes Willie Edwards Jr., Montgomery Klan Victim,” Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), April 29, 2019