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Edward Brooke
Official portrait of Edward brooke
Official portrait, c. 1967
United States Senator
from Massachusetts
In office
January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1979
Preceded byLeverett Saltonstall
Succeeded byPaul Tsongas
35th Attorney General
of Massachusetts
In office
January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1967
GovernorEndicott Peabody
(1963–1965)
John Volpe
(1965–1967)
Preceded byEdward McCormack
Succeeded byEdward T. Martin
Personal details
Born
Edward William Brooke III

(1919-10-26)October 26, 1919
Washington, D.C., U.S.
DiedJanuary 3, 2015(2015-01-03) (aged 95)
Coral Gables, Florida, U.S.
Resting placeArlington National Cemetery
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)
Remigia Ferrari-Scacco
​
​
(m. 1947; div. 1979)​

Anne Fleming
​
(m. 1979)​
Children3
EducationHoward University (BA)
Boston University (LLB)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Army
Years of service1941–1946
Rank  Captain
Unit366th Infantry Regiment
Battles/wars

Edward William Brooke III (October 26, 1919 – January 3, 2015) was an American politician of the Republican Party, who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1967 until 1979. Prior to serving in the senate, he served as the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1963 until 1967. Following his election in 1966, he became the first African American popularly elected to the United States Senate.[1][a] Born to a middle-class black family, Brooke was raised in Washington, D.C.. He graduated from the Boston University School of Law in 1948, after serving in the United States Army during World War II. Beginning in 1950, he became involved in politics, when he ran for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. After serving as chairman of the Finance Commission of Boston, Brooke was elected attorney general in 1962, becoming the the first African-American to be elected attorney general of any state.

He served as attorney general for four years, before running for senate in 1966. In the election, he defeated Democratic Governor Endicott Peabody in a landslide, and was seated on January 3, 1967. In the Senate, Brooke aligned with the liberal faction in the Republican party. He co-wrote the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited housing discrimination. He was re-elected to a second term in 1972, after defeating attorney John Droney. Brooke became a prominent critic of Republican President Richard Nixon, and was the first Senate Republican to call for Nixon's resignation in light of the Watergate scandal. In 1978, he ran for a third term, but was defeated by Democrat Paul Tsongas. After leaving the Senate, Brooke practiced law in Washington, D.C. and was affiliated with various businesses and nonprofit organizations. Brooke died on January 3, 2015, at his home in Coral Gables, Florida, at the age of 95.

Early life and career

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Edward William Brooke III was born on October 26, 1919, in Washington, D.C., to middle-class black family.[3] His father was Edward William Brooke Jr., a lawyer and graduate of Howard University who worked with the Department of Veterans Affairs. His mother was Helen (née Seldon) Brooke.[4] He was the second of three children.[5] Brooke was raised in a racially segregated environment that was "insulated from the harsh realities of the Deep South",[3] with Brooke rarely interacting with the white community.[6] He attended Dunbar High School – then one of the most prestigious academic high schools for African Americans – and graduated in 1936.[7] After graduating, he enrolled in Howard University, where he first considered studying in medicine, before ending up studying social studies and political science.[8] Brooke graduated from university in 1941, with a bachelor of science degree in 1941,[4] and enlisted in the United States Army immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.[9]

In the army, Brooke was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and saw combat in Italy as a a member of the segregated 366th Infantry Regiment.[10] Brooke spent 195 days with his unit in Italy. There, his fluent Italian and his light skin enabled him to cross enemy lines to communicate with Italian partisans.[10] By the end of the war, Brooke had attained the rank of captain, a Bronze Star Medal, and a Distinguished Service Award.[4] His time in the army exposed him to the inequality and racism which existed in the army system. This, combined with the signing of Executive Order 9066, led to him rethinking his support of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[11] His time in the army also changed his perception of race, with him meeting his future-wife Remigia Ferrari-Scacco in Italy. He reasoned that "race had not mattered during our courtship in Italy, and therefore it should not have mattered in the United States".[12] Following his discharge, Brooke graduated from the Boston University School of Law in 1948. "I never studied much at Howard," he reflected, "but at Boston University, I didn't do much else but study."[13]

Early political career

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Edward Brooke as attorney general, c. 1965

After graduating from Boston University, Brooke worked as a lawyer. He declined offers to join established law firms, instead opening his own law practice in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Brooke began his foray in politics in 1950, when at the urging of friends from his former army unit, Brooke ran for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.[4] Brooke didn't affiliate with both of the major parties, choosing instead to run in both the Democratic and Republican primaries. He won the Republican nomination, and was endorsed by the party, but lost the general election in a landslide to his democratic opponent. Two years later, he ran again for the same seat, but again lost the election to the same democratic opponent.[4] In 1960, Brooke ran for secretary of state. He won the Republican nomination, becoming the first black to be nominated for statewide office in Massachusetts. He lost the election to future-mayor of Boston Kevin White, whose campaign issued a bumper sticker saying, “Vote White".[2]

Despite losing the secretary's race to White, the closeness of the results led to Republican leaders taking notice of Brooke's potential.[14] Governor John Volpe sought to reward Brooke for his efforts, and offered him a number of jobs, most of them judicial in nature. Seeking a position with a higher political profile, Brooke eventually accepted the position of Finance Commission of Boston, where he investigated financial irregularities and uncovered evidence of corruption in city affairs. He was described in the press as having "the tenacity of a terrier", and it was reported that he "restore[d] to vigorous life an agency which many had thought moribund."[15] He parlayed his achievements into a successful election as Attorney General of Massachusetts in 1962, becoming the the first African-American to be elected attorney general of any state.[16]

As attorney general, Brooke gained a reputation as a vigorous prosecutor of organized crime and corruption, securing convictions against a number of members of the administration of governor Foster Furcolo; an indictment against Furcolo was dismissed due to lack of evidence.[17] He also coordinated with local police departments on the Boston Strangler case, although the press mocked him for permitting an alleged psychic to participate in the investigation.[18] In 1964, following the nomination of Barry Goldwater as the Republican party's nominee for president, Brooke found Goldwater's nomination offensive.[19] He publicly broke with the party, and implored Republicans "not to invest in the "pseudo-conservatism" of zealots".[20][21] His public repudiation of Goldwater actually helped Brooke win re-election in 1964, as he won by a plurality of nearly 800,000.[20] Encouraged by an outpour of positive support, Brooke continued to offer blunt criticisms of the Republicans, though he began softening his rhetoric by proposing strategies to rebuild the Republican party. This included an off-year national convention to "hammer out an agreement for the future of the party" and "draft a responsible platform to address bread-and-butter issues".[22] By 1965, Brooke had emerged as the main Republican spokesman for racial equality, despite "never rallying his race to challenge segregation barriers with the inspirational fervor of a Martin Luther King."[18][22]

U.S. Senate

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United States Senate: 1967–1973

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See also: 1966 United States Senate election in Massachusetts
Edward Brooke speaking in the United States Senate

In 1966, Brooke announced his candidacy for the senate seat previously held by the retiring Leverett Saltonstall.[23][24] Brooke was able to woo frustrated voters regardless of race or political affiliation to support him in the election,[25] and in the general election, he defeated former Governor Endicott Peabody with 1,213,473 votes to Peabody's 744,761. The black vote had, Time wrote, "no measurable bearing" on the election as less than 3% of the state's population was black, and Peabody also supported civil rights for blacks. Brooke said, "I do not intend to be a national leader of the Negro people", and the magazine said that he "condemned both Stokely Carmichael and Georgia's Lester Maddox" as extremists; his historic election nonetheless gave Brooke "a 50-state constituency", and a power base that "no other Senator can claim".[18] In 1967, Brooke was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the President's Commission on Civil Disorders, better known as the Kerner Commission. The commission was tasked with "outlining the causes of the urban riots of 1967" and "proposing solutions for the epidemic of racial unrest in American cities". The commissions suggestions of funding housing, and employment opportunities for minorities in urban areas were ignored by Johnson, who had become preoccupied with Vietnam War.[26]

That same year, Brooke went on a three-week fact-finding mission in Vietnam. During his first formal speech in the Senate following the trip, he reversed his previous position on the war in Vietnam that increased negotiations with the North Vietnamese rather than an escalation of the fighting were needed. He began to favor President Johnson's "patient" approach to Vietnam as he had been convinced that "the enemy is not disposed to participate in any meaningful negotiations".[27] By 1968, Brooke had earned a reputation as a moderate member of the Republican Party, and organized the Senate's "Wednesday Club" of progressive Republicans who met for Wednesday lunches and strategy discussions.[28] He had also become a leading advocate against discrimination in housing and on behalf of affordable housing, co-authoring the Fair Housing Act of – together with then Minnesota senator Walter Mondale – a law which prohibits discrimination in housing.[29] Brooke, who supported Michigan Governor George W. Romney and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller's bids for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination against Richard Nixon's, often differed with President Nixon on matters of social policy and civil rights.[2]

Edward Brooke at the 1968 Republican National Convention

Despite Brooke's disagreements with Nixon, the president reportedly respected the senator's abilities; after Nixon's election in 1968, Brooke had been offered either a post in Nixon's cabinet or a diplomatic posting to the United Nations.[29] The press also discussed Brooke as a possible replacement for Spiro Agnew as Nixon's running mate in the 1972 presidential election.[30] In 1969, Congress enacted the "Brooke Amendment" to the federal publicly assisted housing program which limited the tenants' out-of-pocket rent expenditure to 25 percent of their income.[29] Additionally, Brooke voted in favor of the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court.[31] That same year, Brooke spoke at Wellesley College's commencement against "coercive protest", and was understood by some students as calling protesters "elite ne'er-do-wells".[32] Then student government president Hillary Rodham departed from her planned speech to rebut Brooke's words, affirming the "indispensable task of criticizing and constructive protest," for which she was featured in Life magazine.[33][34][35]

In May 1969, ethics issues caused the resignation of justice Abe Fortas from the Supreme Court, opening a vacancy for Nixon. The president nominated judge Clement Haynsworth of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to the court.[36] Brooke opposed Haynsworth's nomination, due to concerns over Haynsworth's views on segregation and labor.[36][2] During the confirmation process, Brooke led a bipartisan coalition against Haynsworth, and successfully prevented his nomination. A few months later, he again organized sufficient Republican support to defeat Nixon's second Supreme Court nominee Harrold Carswell, again over concerns on the justice's views on segregation. He also opposed Nixon's third nominee William H. Rehnquist, though Rehnquist's nomination passed through the senate anyway.[27][2]

United States Senate: 1973–1979

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See also: 1972 United States Senate election in Massachusetts
Results of Brooke's 1972 re-election bid by municipality

In 1972, Brooke ran for re-election. He ran unopposed in the Republican primary, and faced Middlesex County District Attorney John Droney in the general election.[37] Brooke was re-elected to a second term with 1,505,932 votes, to Droney's 823,278.[38][39]

Post-senate career

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Death and legacy

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In 1967, Brooke was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.[40]

Notes

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  1. ^ The first African-American senator, Hiram Rhodes Revels, was appointed by the Mississippi state legislature to an unexpired term in 1870. Blanche Bruce was the first African American elected to the Senate, elected by the Mississippi state legislature to a full term in 1874. Prior to the 17th Amendment in 1913, U.S. Senators were elected by state legislatures.[2]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ "U.S. Senate: Edward Brooke: A Featured Biography". www.senate.gov. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e Martin, Douglas (January 3, 2015). "Edward W. Brooke III, 95, Senate Pioneer, Is Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  3. ^ a b Brooke 2007, pp. 4–5.
  4. ^ a b c d e U.S. Government Printing Office 2008, p. 332.
  5. ^ Cutler 1972, pp. 13–14.
  6. ^ Brooke 2007, pp. 21–38.
  7. ^ Cutler 1972, pp. 14–18.
  8. ^ Cutler 1972, p. 20.
  9. ^ Cutler 1972, p. 23.
  10. ^ a b "Brooke, Edward William, III | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  11. ^ Brooke 2007, pp. 43–48.
  12. ^ Brooke 2007, p. 278.
  13. ^ Barlow, Rich (February 2015). "Remembering a Pioneering Politician". Bostonia. Boston University: 12.
  14. ^ Cutler 1972, p. 63.
  15. ^ Cutler 1972, pp. 65–67.
  16. ^ "Former senator awarded Congressional Gold Medal". CNN. October 28, 2009. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
  17. ^ Cutler 1972, pp. 104–105.
  18. ^ a b c "The Senate: An Individual Who Happens To Be a Negro". Time. Vol. 89, no. 7. February 17, 1967. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
  19. ^ Wright 2011, pp. 94–95.
  20. ^ a b Wright 2011, p. 95.
  21. ^ Brooke 2007, pp. 107–108.
  22. ^ a b Wright 2011, p. 96.
  23. ^ U.S. Government Printing Office 2008, p. 334.
  24. ^ Wright 2011, p. 101.
  25. ^ Wright 2011, p. 102.
  26. ^ U.S. Government Printing Office 2008, pp. 335.
  27. ^ a b U.S. Government Printing Office 2008, p. 336.
  28. ^ Giroux, Greg (January 4, 2015). "Edward Brooke Served in a Different Era of Senate Politics". Bloomberg News. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  29. ^ a b c Feeney, Mark – Metro (January 4, 2015). "Edward W. Brooke, first African-American elected to the US Senate since Reconstruction, dies". The Boston Globe. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  30. ^ "The Brooke Scenario". Time. December 13, 1971. Archived from the original on December 21, 2008. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
  31. ^ "Confirmation of nomination of Thurgood Marshall, the first negro appointed to the supreme court". GovTrack.us.
  32. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: The Choice 2016, Frontline, PBS, 30:30–32:30
  33. ^ Dedman, Bill (May 9, 2007). "Reading Hillary Rodham's hidden thesis". MSNBC. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  34. ^ Rodham, Hillary D. (1969). Hillary D. Rodham's 1969 Student Commencement Speech (Speech). Wellesley College. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  35. ^ Dougherty (ed.), Biography: Hillary Clinton, 10:00 – 11:00, archived from the original on May 23, 2016, retrieved July 1, 2017
  36. ^ a b David A. Kaplan (September 4, 1989). "The Reagan Court – Child of Lyndon Johnson?". The New York Times. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
  37. ^ U.S. Government Printing Office 2008, p. 337.
  38. ^ Race details at ourcampaigns.com
  39. ^ Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives (1973). "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1972" (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 20–21. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  40. ^ NAACP Spingarn Medal Archived 2014-08-02 at the Wayback Machine

Sources

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edward Brooke.


Legal offices
Preceded by Attorney General of Massachusetts
1963–1967 		Succeeded by
Ed Martin
(Acting)
Party political offices
Preceded by Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
(Class 2)
1966, 1972, 1978 		Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by United States Senator (Class 2) from Massachusetts
1967–1979
Served alongside: Ted Kennedy 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Oldest living United States Senator (current or former)
July 30, 2013 – January 3, 2015 		Succeeded by


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