Thomas Hency Brewer, Sr. (1894-1956) was an African-American physician, born on November 19, 1894, in Saco, Alabama, who was instrumental in the civil rights movement in Columbus, Georgia during the early- to mid-twentieth century, before he was assassinated in 1956. Life and death Brewer was born in Saco, Alabama, graduated from Selma University in Selma, Alabama, then from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and moved to Columbus, Georgia in 1920. He became a respected physician and one of Columbus' most prominent civil rights activists, succeeding in the desegregation of the Columbus, Georgia Police Department, being one of the founders of the city's NAACP chapter, and as a supporter of Primus King, among other advocacies. He was active in the Republican Party, serving as a delegate to the GOP National Convention in Philadelphia. On July 4, 1944, Primus E. King, an African-American registered voter, went to the Muscogee County Courthouse in Columbus to cast his vote in the Democratic Party's primary election. He was turned away by law enforcement. Dr. Brewer encouraged and financially supported Mr. King in his lawsuit filed in federal court, styled King v. Chapman. In a landmark ruling, the court found in Mr. King's favor, deciding that the exclusion of black voters was unconstitutional. The U.S. Court of Appeals agreed, which ended the State of Georgia's "whites only" primaries. Dr. Brewer shared an office building on First Street in Columbus with the F&B Department store, owned by Luico Flowers. In 1956, the two men witnessed a beating of a black man by police outside of the building. Dr. Brewer and Mr. Flowers argued about the incident: Dr. Brewer believed the police officer used excessive force and Mr. Flowers disagreed. About a week later, on February 18, 1956, Mr. Flowers shot Dr. Brewer seven times and killed him, claiming self-defense. The grand jury believed Mr. Flowers' account of the incident and he was not charged. A year later, Mr. Flowers was found shot dead, in what authorities determined was a suicide. Approximately 2,500 mourners showed up for Dr. Brewer's funeral at the First African Baptist Church on Fifth Avenue. Lillian "Bunky" McClung, the daughter of the first African-American mayor of Columbus, A. J. McClung, recalled the death of Dr. Brewer in a 2015 interview with the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer newspaper: "Dr. Brewer had been the person behind motivating the people in this community to want more. ... I