January 10, 1967 – Edward W. Brooke, 1st African American Popularly Elected to the Senate, Takes His Seat

Edward W. Brooke was born on October 26, 1919 in Washington, D.C. He earned a B.S. in 1941 and then entered the U.S. Army, stationed with the segregated 366th Infantry Regiment in Massachusetts. As he related in his biography, Bridging the Divide: My Life (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007), the Massachusetts base had a whites–only policy for all clubs, as well as the swimming pool, the tennis courts, and the general store. “In every regard, we were treated as second–class soldiers, if not worse, and we were angry,” Brooke recalled. “I felt a personal frustration and bitterness I had not known before in my life.” (Brooke at page 22.) Brooke went so far as to defend black enlisted men in military court, despite a lack of legal training.

By the end of World War II, Brooke had earned the rank of captain, a Bronze Star, and a Distinguished Service Award. Furthermore, his experience defending other enlisted men prompted him to earn first a Bachelor of Law in 1948 and then a Master of Law in 1949.

As the U.S. House of Representatives History site observes, Brooke declined offers to join established law firms, choosing instead to start his own practice in the predominantly African–American community of Roxbury, Massachusetts.

In 1960, he ran for Massachusetts secretary of state. Although he lost, he surprised many people by capturing more than one million votes in an election in which John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts was the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. The House history site reports:

In recognition of his strong performance in the campaign, Republican Governor John Volpe of Massachusetts appointed Brooke chairman of the Boston Finance Commission, whose purpose was to uncover corruption in the city’s municipal agencies. During his two–year tenure, Brooke transformed the commission into a respectable and effective organization, and his position helped make him one of the most popular political figures in the state.”

In 1962, Brooke earned the Republican nomination for Massachusetts Attorney General and easily defeated the Democratic challenger, which brought him national attention. Brooke continued his efforts to thwart corruption in the state government. While he fought to end housing discrimination, he did not support a 1964 boycott by African–American students to protest segregation in the Boston school system, declaring: “I am not a civil rights leader, and I don’t profess to be.” This conservative response, as well as his criticism of militant civil rights activists won him backing from many voters in the predominantly white state.

Brooke in 1968

In 1966, Brooke defeated Democratic Governor Endicott Peabody in a landslide to win election to the Senate. He was the first African American to be elected by popular vote.

As he explained in an interview:

My two predecessors were elected by carpetbagger legislatures and the first one only served a year, and that was a rough, rough year. They paid him, but I don’t think they let him do anything. The other one did serve a full term. I don’t know whether he stood for reelection. At any rate, he did serve the one term. Those were the days of Reconstruction, where they were putting in Governors and just about everybody else. Interestingly enough, no attorneys general. So when I ran for attorney general, I was running for an office never held by a black in this country.”

Cory Booker

On the opening day of the 90th Congress, Senator Kennedy, the senior Senator of Massachusetts, escorted the newly elected Brooke down the aisle of the Senate Chamber by long–standing tradition. The Senators greeted Brooke with a standing ovation.

Meanwhile, once in the Senate, Brooke recalled that every minority, but especially African Americans, put pressure on him. He observed:

In the African American community, I was looked upon with great expectations and yet it had to be understood that I was being elected in a state with about a two percent black population. 

I had to have balance. I could not just be the civil rights Senator. I had to exert my energy to the control of nuclear weapons. I had to concern myself with the horrible war in Vietnam, which was raging at the time that I was running and during my early years in the Senate. That was the number one issue, as you remember. I had to work on issues facing the economy, jobs, and healthcare. All of these issues were issues that my constituency was concerned about. So, though they had no objection to my civil rights record or what I would do on civil rights, because they expected that of me, on the other hand, they wanted me to be the Senator for all the people and I had to live up to that promise to my constituency. It was walking that fine line.”

In the Senate, Brooke aligned with the liberal faction of Republicans. He co-wrote the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited housing discrimination. Brooke became a prominent critic of President Richard Nixon and was the first Senate Republican to call for Nixon’s resignation in light of the Watergate scandal.

Brooke at the 1968 Republican National Convention

Brooke won re-election in 1972, but he his solid support base in Massachusetts began to wane as a result of his acrimonious and public divorce in 1978 in addition to allegations of financial misconduct.

He was defeated by Paul Tsongas in 1978. After leaving the Senate, Brooke practiced law in Washington, D.C. and was affiliated with various businesses and non-profits.

In 1984 he became chairman of the Boston Bank of Commerce, and one year later he was named to the board of directors of Grumman. Upon being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, Brooke returned to the public spotlight to increase awareness of breast cancer in men.

In 2004 President George W. Bush awarded Brooke the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In 2007, Brooke published his autobiography, Bridging the Divide: My Life. He died at his home in Coral Gables, Florida, on January 3, 2015.

Edward Brooke is congratulated by President George W. Bush at the Ceremony for the 2004 Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, The East Room of the White House.