BROOKE, Edward William, III, a Senator from Massachusetts; born in Washington, D.C., October 26, 1919; attended the public schools of Washington, D.C.; graduated from Howard University, Washington, D.C., in 1941; graduated, Boston University Law School 1948; captain, United States Army, infantry, with five years of active service in the European theater of operations; chairman of Finance Commission, city of Boston 1961-1962; elected attorney general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1962; reelected in 1964; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1966; reelected in 1972 and served from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1979; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1978; first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote; lawyer; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 23, 2004; awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on July 1, 2008, for recognition of his service to the nation; was a resident of Coral Gables, Fla, until his death on January 3, 2015; interment in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.
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Elected in November 1966, Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts became the first Black lawmaker to serve in the Senate in 86 years when he was sworn in the following January. Brooke was the first popularly elected Black Senator and the first Black lawmaker from Massachusetts to serve in Congress. Brooke, a Republican, was an independent thinker who often collaborated with colleagues of both parties. Throughout his political career, Brooke attempted to balance his support for legislation designed to end racial inequality with a mistrust of what he viewed as a “paternalistic government.” “Hand in hand with the legal battles and demonstrations there must go self-help,” Brooke said. “There must go with this quest for equal opportunity an awareness of equal responsibility.”1
Edward William Brooke III was born in Washington, DC, on October 26, 1919, to Helen, a homemaker, and Edward Brooke Jr., a longtime lawyer with the U.S. Veterans Administration. The future Senator was named for his grandfather, father, and deceased sister Edwina. He also had an older sister, Helene. After graduating from Dunbar High School in Washington, DC, in 1936, Ed Brooke attended Howard University. Originally intending to pursue a career in medicine, Brooke decided to major in sociology, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1941. Shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Brooke entered the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant. Before serving overseas in World War II, Brooke was stationed with the segregated, all-Black 366th Infantry Regiment at Fort Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts. Like many Black Members of the era, Brooke felt keenly the irony and indignity of fighting for democracy abroad while facing racial discrimination in the armed forces. The Massachusetts Army base implemented 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 secondclass 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.” While stateside, Brooke defended Black enlisted men in military court. Despite a lack of legal training, he earned a reputation as a skilled public defender and a “soldier’s lawyer.”2
Brooke spent 195 days with his unit in Italy. His fluent Italian enabled him to cross enemy lines to communicate with Italian partisans. By the war’s end, Brooke had earned the rank of captain, a Bronze Star, and a Distinguished Service Award. During his tour in Europe, he also met Italian-born Remigia Ferrari-Scacco. After a two-year, long-distance relationship, they married on June 7, 1947, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. The couple had two daughters: Edwina and Remi. They divorced in 1978, and a year later Brooke married Anne Fleming with whom he had a son, Edward W. Brooke IV.3
Brooke’s legal experience on the Massachusetts military base inspired him to earn a bachelor of laws degree in 1948 and a master of laws degree in 1950 from Boston University. Brooke declined offers to join established law firms, choosing instead to start his own practice in the predominantly African-American Boston neighborhood, Roxbury. At the urging of friends from his former Army unit, Brooke interrupted his law career to run for the Massachusetts house of representatives in 1950. Unsure of his preferred party affiliation, Brooke took advantage of a state law allowing candidates to cross-file. Though he had no prior political experience, he received the endorsement of the Republican Party for the house seat representing Roxbury. Unsuccessful in the general election, Brooke entered the race two years later, winning the Republican nomination but losing to his Democratic opponent.4
Brooke established himself as a successful lawyer and built community ties that proved significant in future bids for elected office. In 1960, he ran for Massachusetts secretary of state. Although Brooke lost that election, his strong showing surprised observers. In recognition of his performance in the campaign, Republican Governor John Volpe of Massachusetts appointed Brooke chairman of the Boston finance commission, which uncovered corruption in the city’s municipal agencies. During his two-year tenure, Brooke transformed the commission into a respectable and effective organization. This position helped make him one of the most popular political figures in the state.5
In 1962, Brooke earned the Republican nomination for Massachusetts attorney general, then easily defeated the Democratic challenger. Brooke garnered national attention as the only member of his party to win statewide election in 1962 and enjoyed the distinction of becoming the state’s first African-American attorney general. Brooke continued his efforts to thwart corruption in the state government. He also recommended a series of measures to protect consumers’ rights and fought to end housing discrimination. Civil rights leaders criticized Brooke’s decision that a proposed 1964 boycott by African-American students to protest segregation in the Boston school system would be illegal. “I am not a civil rights leader and I don’t profess to be one,” Brooke once declared, explaining the conflict between his responsibility as an attorney general who must uphold existing law and his personal views on racial equality. His response to the proposed protest won him the support of many voters in the predominantly White state.6
In 1966, Brooke authored The Challenge of Change: Crisis in Our Two-Party System, outlining many of his political principles, including his beliefs about civil rights. The “issue [of civil rights] is pressing on the nation, and cries out for a solution,” Brooke wrote, arguing that in addition to legislation, African Americans needed access to educational opportunities of high quality to compete with Whites. While he promoted a civil rights agenda for reform, Brooke maintained that militancy among activists undermined the civil rights movement.7
After two terms as attorney general, Brooke announced his candidacy in 1965 for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the retirement of Leverett Saltonstall. Brooke was unopposed in the Republican primary and faced Democrat Endicott Peabody, the former governor of Massachusetts, in the general election. Campaigning as a “creative Republican,” Brooke successfully courted voters from both parties. His criticism of the increasing militancy of some civil rights activists resonated with many White voters in Massachusetts. Although Peabody enjoyed the enthusiastic backing of popular Massachusetts Senator Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy, he failed to break through with voters, and on November 8, 1966, Brooke won a seat in the 90th Congress (1967–1969), taking 62 percent of the vote. His victory met with considerable fanfare, both in Massachusetts and across the nation. Brooke was the first African-American candidate elected to the Senate since the Reconstruction Era. Asked to comment on his victory, Brooke praised the people of Massachusetts for their ability to “judge you on your merit and your worth alone.” He promised to use his position to “unite men who have not been united before,” reiterating his pledge to represent his constituents equally. In November 1972, Brooke easily defeated Democrat John J. Droney, the Middlesex County district attorney, earning 64 percent of the vote to win a second term in the Senate.8
Initially assigned to the committees on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Banking and Currency, and Government Operations, Brooke also served on the Armed Services and the Joint Committee on Bicentennial Arrangements committees for one Congress. From the 92nd to the 95th Congresses (1971–1979), Brooke was on three committees: Appropriations; Special Aging; and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Brooke also sat on the Select Equal Educational Opportunity Committee, the Joint Committee on Defense Production, and the Select Standards and Conduct Committee.9
Despite being the first Black Senator since the nineteenth century—and having been elected just two years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—Brooke claimed he experienced little institutional racism in the Senate. “In all my years in the Senate, I never encountered an overt act of hostility,” he said. Brooke later recalled using the Senate gym and the adjoining facilities without incident. Early in his first term, Brooke went to the Senators’ swimming pool in the Russell Senate Office Building. Southern Democrats and staunch segregationists John Cornelius Stennis of Mississippi, John Little McClellan of Arkansas, and James Strom Thurmond of South Carolina greeted Brooke and invited him to join them in the pool. “There was no hesitation or ill will that I could see,” Brooke recollected. “Yet these were men who consistently voted against legislation that would have provided equal opportunity to others of my race. I felt that if a senator truly believed in racial separatism I could live with that, but it was increasingly evident that some members of the Senate played on bigotry purely for political gain.”10
President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Brooke to the President’s Commission on Civil Disorders shortly after he was elected to the Senate. Illinois Governor Otto Kerner led the group, which became known as the Kerner Commission. Charged with investigating the causes of the urban riots of 1967, the Kerner Commission also proposed solutions for the wide-spread incidences of looting and violence in American cities. The 11-member commission reported that American society was sharply divided along racial lines. Brooke agreed with one of the commission’s principal recommendations: that the government should fund a series of programs to increase educational, housing, and employment opportunities for people of color living in urban areas. Although the commission’s reports received widespread attention by scholars and in the press, President Johnson disagreed with many of its findings, and the commission’s recommendations were largely set aside by policymakers.11
In the Senate, Edward Brooke was often at the forefront of efforts to expand and protect the legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. Working with Democratic Senator Walter F. Mondale of Minnesota, Brooke succeeded in attaching an antidiscrimination amendment to the groundbreaking Civil Rights Act of 1968. Title VIII of the legislation included provisions to combat racial discrimination in housing. “Fair housing does not promise an end to the ghetto,” Brooke cautioned. “It promises only to demonstrate that the ghetto is not an immutable institution in America.” Brooke cited his own experience of being one of the “lucky ones” that was fortunate enough to “escape the ghetto,” and spoke of the “psychological impact” of living in “an area which has been marked for second-class citizens.” To combat the “unconscionable bitterness between white and Black Americans, it is encumbent [sic] upon our Government to act, and to act now,” Brooke said.12
In 1975, Brooke helped lead the effort in the Senate to extend the 1965 Voting Rights Act. When a proposed Senate amendment threatened to dilute the historic voting rights legislation, Brooke joined the debate. “I just cannot believe that here in 1975 on the floor of the Senate we are ready to say to the American people, black or white, red or brown, ‘You just cannot even be assured the basic right to vote in this country.’” Brooke’s eloquent and impassioned plea to his colleagues helped extend the landmark measure for seven years. Shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, Brooke urged his congressional colleagues to recognize the renowned civil rights leader by declaring January 15 (King’s birthday) a national holiday. Arguing that it “would be fitting to pay our respects to this noble figure by enduring public commemoration of his life and philosophy,” the Massachusetts Senator earned the support of many African Americans. Brooke also made headlines when he traveled to Jackson State College in Mississippi in May 1970 to help settle the situation after police shot and killed two Black students. In 1977, he successfully fought an amendment to a Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) bill that would have prevented the department from enforcing quotas to meet affirmative action goals.13
As a Republican Senator from a state with a small Black population, Brooke had different concerns, interests, and constituencies than most other Black lawmakers, all of whom served in the House of Representatives at the time. Occasionally, this placed Brooke at odds with the Black Representatives, and he never joined the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). But the Senator and House Members also found occasions to work with and support each other. In 1969, both Brooke and the Black Members of the House opposed Richard M. Nixon’s nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth Jr. to the Supreme Court, and they coordinated opposition. In 1971, Brooke declined to participate in the Black Representatives’ boycott of President Nixon’s State of the Union Address, but he did later support a meeting between the Members and the President. Two years later, Senator Brooke was the keynote speaker at the CBC’s annual fundraiser dinner.14
Although Brooke maintained his Republican Party affiliation, his stances were often contrary to the official party line. During his two terms in the Senate, Brooke backed affirmative action, federal set asides for contracts with minority businesses, and public housing legislation. He also favored extending minimum wage standards to jobs not covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act, providing tax incentives to companies to enable them to hire more employees, and increasing operating subsidies for commuter rail services and mass transit systems. Brooke was a vocal opponent of antibusing legislation, and on several occasions helped defeat or weaken strong antibusing bills passed in the House. In 1974, he successfully defeated the Holt amendment, introduced by Maryland Representative Marjorie Sewell Holt, to a HEW appropriations bill that would have effectively ended the federal government’s role in school desegregation. At times Brooke broke party ranks to work with Democrats in the Senate and the House. For example, Brooke and then-House Majority Leader Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr. of Massachusetts recommended a swift increase in Social Security benefits in 1972.15
Although Brooke initially supported President Nixon, he grew increasingly critical of the Nixon administration. Saying that he was “deeply concerned about the lack of commitment to equal opportunities for all people,” Brooke denounced the White House for neglecting Black communities and failing to enforce school integration. In addition to Haynsworth, Brooke opposed two other Nixon Supreme Court nominees: G. Harrold Carswell and William H. Rehnquist. In May 1973, he introduced a resolution authorizing the U.S. Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to serve in all criminal investigations arising from the Watergate scandal. Six months later, Brooke became the first Republican Senator to publicly call for President Nixon’s resignation. “There is no question that the President has lost his effectiveness as the leader of this country, primarily because he has lost the confidence of the people of the country,” Brooke remarked. “I think, therefore, that in the interests of this nation that he loves that he should step down, tender his resignation.” Brooke also was one of the few Republicans to disagree publicly with President Gerald R. Ford’s pardon of Nixon, deeming it a “serious mistake.”16
Brooke also influenced American foreign policy, especially during the Vietnam War. As he campaigned for the Senate in 1966, Brooke called for increased negotiations with the North Vietnamese rather than an escalation of the fighting. In 1967, he went on a three-week fact-finding mission to Southeast Asia, and then spoke about that experience in his first formal speech in the Senate. Although Brooke had hoped for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, he came home from Vietnam convinced “that the enemy is not disposed to participate in any meaningful negotiations” and that President Johnson’s “patient” approach to Vietnam did, in fact, have merit. Brooke was praised by those who found his willingness to publicly change his position courageous and criticized by many civil rights activists who believed the Vietnam War siphoned valuable funding away from vital domestic programs. Years later, Brooke maintained that his maiden speech had been misinterpreted because the press overlooked his continued support of a reduction of American involvement in the region. As a moderate Republican, Brooke grew impatient with the Nixon administration’s aggressive policies in Southeast Asia, which escalated the conflict with few signs of success. In 1970, he and 15 members of his party voted for the Cooper–Church Amendment, which originated in response to Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia and prohibited the use of American troops outside Vietnam. Brooke further challenged the President’s war effort by voting for legislation that established a time limit for the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.17
Brooke’s solid support base in Massachusetts began to wane after an acrimonious and public divorce in 1978 led to allegations of financial misconduct. In the Republican primary, Brooke faced a challenge from conservative television talk show host Avi Nelson. Although he managed to rebuff Nelson’s bid, the controversies surrounding Brooke’s finances left him in a weakened position as he entered the general election campaign. In November 1978, Democrat Paul Efthemios Tsongas, a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, defeated Brooke, 55 to 45 percent.18
After leaving office, Brooke resumed the practice of law in Washington, DC. In 1984, he became chairman of a commercial bank in Boston, and one year later, he was named to the board of directors of a large defense contractor. 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. A year later, Congress awarded him the Congressional Gold Medal. Brooke died at his home in Coral Gables, Florida, on January 3, 2015.19
1The two previous Black Senators, Hiram R. Revels and Blanche K. Bruce (both of Mississippi) were elected by state legislatures. John H. Fenton, “Brooke, A Negro, Wins Senate Seat,” 9 November 1966, New York Times: 1; Congressional Record, Senate, 95th Cong., 2nd sess. (7 March 1978): 5810; Leah Wright Rigueur, The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015): 102.
2Linda M. Carter, “Edward W. Brooke,” in Notable Black American Men, ed. Jessie Carney Smith (Detroit, MI: Gale Research, Inc., 1999): 121–122; John Henry Cutler, Ed Brooke: Biography of a Senator (New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1972): 16; Edward W. Brooke, Bridging the Divide: My Life (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007): 22.
3Carter, “Edward W. Brooke”: 122; Shirley Washington, Outstanding African Americans of Congress (Washington, DC: U.S. Capitol Historical Society, 1998): 12.
4Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 54–60; Carter, “Edward W. Brooke”: 122.
5“Edward Brooke,” Contemporary Black Biography, vol. 8 (Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., 1994); Washington, Outstanding African Americans of Congress: 12; Carter, “Edward W. Brooke”: 122; Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 71–79.
6“Edward Brooke,” Contemporary Black Biography; Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 96, 106–107; Layhmond Robinson, “Negroes Widen Political Role; Georgians Elect State Senator,” 8 November 1962, New York Times: 42; “Big Political Gains Scored by Negroes,” 8 November 1962, Washington Post: C16; Mark Feeney, “Edward Brooke, Who Broke Down Barriers, Dies: 1st African-American Elected Senator by Popular Vote,” 4 January 2015, Boston Globe: A1; “Law My Guide, Says Brooke of Boycott,” 10 February 1964, Boston Globe: 15.
7Edward W. Brooke, The Challenge of Change: Crisis in Our Two-Party System (Boston: Little, Brown, 1966): 159.
8David S. Broder, “Negro Announces for Senate Race,” 31 December 1965, New York Times: 6; Rigueur, The Loneliness of the Black Republican: 116; Jason Sokol, All Eyes are Upon Us: Race and Politics from Boston to Brooklyn (New York: Basic Books, 2014): 114–122; John H. Henton, “A Dapper Mr. Brooke Goes to Washington,” 2 January 1967, New York Times: 22; Edgar J. Mills, “Brooke Seizes Spotlight,” 10 November 1966, Christian Science Monitor: 1; Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, “Election Statistics, 1920 to Present”; Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 212.
9As a member of the Joint Committee on Bicentennial Arrangements, Edward W. Brooke played an instrumental role in the publication of the first edition of Black Americans in Congress in 1977. Black Americans in Congress, 1870–1977 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1977).
10Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 149–150.
11Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 172–174; The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968).
12Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 176; Congressional Record, Senate, 90th Cong., 2nd sess. (6 February 1968): 2281.
13Congressional Record, Senate, 94th Cong., 1st sess. (23 July 1975): 24226; Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 217–219; Bill Boyarsky, “Voting Rights Bill Survives Ford’s Letter,” 24 July 1975, Los Angeles Times: B1; Congressional Record, Senate, 90th Cong., 2nd sess. (8 April 1968): 9227; Cutler, Ed Brooke: 290–291; Richard J. Stewart, “Sen. Brooke, at Jackson State, Urges Nonviolence,” 20 May 1970, Boston Globe: 1; Congressional Record, Senate, 95th Cong., 1st sess. (28 June 1977): 21228–21229.
14Matthew Storin, “Faulting Nixon on Haynsworth: Brooke Plays New Role as Negro Leader,” 5 October 1969, Boston Globe: A35; William L. Clay, Just Permanent Interests: Black Americans in Congress 1870–1991 (New York: Amistad Press, Inc., 1992): 143; Paul Delaney, “Brooke Furthers Black Caucus Tie,” 27 September 1973, New York Times: 13; Congressional Record, House, 93rd Cong., 1st sess. (3 October 1973): 32875–32878.
15“Affirmative Action is Very Much Alive–Brooke,” 29 June 1978, Boston Globe: 28; Congressional Record, Senate, 95th Cong., 1st sess. (10 March 1977): 7155–7156; Congressional Record, Senate, 91st Cong., 1st sess. (23 September 1969): 26720–26721; James S. Doyle, “The Buzz in Glamor-Hungry Washington over Sen. Edward Brooke Won’t Soften the Problems of a Negro Freshmen Senator,” 8 January 1967, Boston Globe: A1; Hearings before the Senate Committee on Finance, The Revenue Act of 1971, 92nd Cong., 1st sess. (1971): 597–600; Thomas Oliphant, “Brooke has Transit Remedy,” 2 March 1978, Boston Globe: 26; John W. Lewis Jr., “Holt Amendment Seen Part of U.S. Anti-Black Surge,” Afro-American (Baltimore, MD): 1; Congressional Record, Senate, 93rd Cong., 2nd sess. (11 December 1974): 39107; Marjorie Hunter, “Brooke Joins Democrats in Urging Speedy Rise in Social Security Benefits,” 5 May 1972, New York Times: 10.
16“Brooke Says Nixon Shuns Black Needs,” 12 March 1970, New York Times: 25; Richard L. Madden, “Brooke Appeals to Nixon to Resign for Nation’s Sake,” 5 November 1973, New York Times: 1; Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 208–209; Harold M. Schmeck Jr., “Reaction to Pardon of Nixon Is Divided, But Not Entirely Along Party Lines,” 9 September 1974, New York Times: 25.
17“Brooke Calls Vietnam a Prime Issue,” 29 August 1966, Washington Post: A2; John Herbers, “Brooke Shifts War View and Supports President,” 24 March 1967, New York Times: 1; Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 162–167; Richard L. Strout, “ ‘Vote Serves to Warn the President. . .,’ ” 2 July 1970, Christian Science Monitor: 1.
18George B. Merry, “A Cloud Crosses Brooke Path,” 30 May 1978, Christian Science Monitor: 3; “Brooke Admits to False Statement, Under Oath, about a $49,000 Loan,” 27 May 1978, New York Times: 47; Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 243–249; “Brooke Hopes for Large Voter Turnout Today,” 19 September 1978, Washington Post: A4; “Election Statistics, 1920 to Present.”
19David Perera, “Into the Spotlight; Bout with Breast Cancer Turns Ex-Sen. Brooke Into Spokesman,” 19 June 2003, Roll Call: n.p.; Brooke, Bridging the Divide: 297–302; Rebecca Dana, “Lucky 13: President Honors Nation’s Best; Grosvenor, Podhoretz Among Medal of Freedom Recipients,” 24 June 2004, Washington Post: C1; Donna Gehrke-White, “A Vote for Miami: Former Sen. Edward Brooke Promotes His New Memoir from His New Home,” 19 March 2007, Miami Herald: n.p.; Lynette Clemetson, “A Senator’s Ambitious Path Through Race and Politics,” 21 February 2007, New York Times: E2; Edward William Brooke III Congressional Gold Medal Act, Public Law 110-260, 122 Stat. 2433 (2008).
Brooke, Edward. Bridging the Divide: My Life. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007.
___. The Challenge of Change: Crisis In Our Two-Party System. Boston: Little, Brown Co., 1966.
Cutler, John Henry. Ed Brooke: Biography of a Senator. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1972.
Hartshorn, Elinor C. "The Quiet Campaigner: Edward W. Brooke in Massachusetts." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, 1973.
Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk, Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008.
| Committee Name & Date | Congresses | Congresses |
|---|---|---|
|
Joint Committee on Bicentennial Arrangements
[1975-1976]
94th Congress
|
94th (1975–1977)
|
94th (1975–1977)
|
|
Joint Committee on Defense Production
[1950-1977]
81st through 95th Congresses
|
94th (1975–1977) – 95th (1977–1979)
|
94th (1975–1977) –
95th (1977–1979)
|
