Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

This article announces the death on March 5, 2002, of Dexter Brooks, senior resident Superior Court judge for Robeson County, at age 58. It also provides brief biographical information. Brooks, who was the county's first Indian Superior Court judge, was appointed to the position by the state's governor in 1988, following intense turmoil in the county after the murder of Julian Pierce, who was then a candidate for Superior Court judge. Brooks also worked to help bring an end to “double voting” in Robeson County (for background information on this topic, see The Lumbee Indians: an annotated bibliography, items 866, 1370, 1373).

Brooks volunteered for military service during the Vietnamese Conflict, serving as a field artillery soldier in the First Air Cavalry Division. He taught at Robeson Technical Institute, Southeastern Community College, and North Carolina State University. He then earned a law degree at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Then, from 1976 through 1988, he worked with the Pembroke law firm of Locklear, Brooks, Jacobs, and Sutton.