On February 27, 1948, Royal Brooks, a 44-year old African American man and union member of Local 309 FTA-CIO, boarded a bus at Ferry Landing Terminal in Gretna, Louisiana. The woman in front of him paid her fare of one nickel and then realized that she was on the wrong bus, and Brooks offered to ride on her fare and gave her his nickel. Bus driver Preston Herbert became outraged. Patrolman Alvin Bladsacker boarded the bus, hit Brooks in the head, and dragged him off the bus. After walking about one block on Huey P. Long Avenue, Bladsacker shot Brooks twice, killing him. A photographer from The Louisiana Weekly took a photograph of Brooks dying in the street next to his son, and in part because of the published image, people were inspired to organize the Committee for Justice on the Brooks case. The organizers put pressure on the city of Gretna to charge Alvin Bladsacker for the murder of Royal Brooks. A jury acquitted him of manslaughter at trial. On April 28, 2018, Gretna Mayor Belinda C. Constant issued an official proclamation apologizing for the killing of Royal Brooks on behalf of the city.
