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Edward Brooke, first African American U.S. senator elected by popular vote, dies at 95
Edward Brooke, the Massachusetts Republican who was the first African American to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, died on Saturday at the age of 95, the state Republican Party said.
Brooke was Massachusetts attorney general when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1966, at a time when the country was gripped by racial unrest.
Before his election, there were two other African American senators shortly after the Civil War. But until early in the 20th century, senators were picked by state legislatures and not by popular vote.
In the Senate, Brooke joined a small band of liberal Republicans who often went against the wishes of the Republican president, Richard Nixon.
Brooke opposed the buildup of troops in Vietnam, and later in the middle of the Watergate scandal, he became the first Republican senator to call for Nixon to resign.
Brooke was born in Washington, D.C., on October 26, 1919. His father was an attorney for the Veterans Administration. He entered Howard University at the age of 16, fought in World War Two and earned a law degree from Boston College.
As a lawyer, he lost several political bids before being appointed chairman of the Boston Finance Commission and then won the job of attorney general in 1962, the first African-American in the country to rise to that high state office.
As attorney general, he oversaw the investigation into the case of the “Boston Strangler,” a serial killer who terrorized women in New England.
After leaving the Senate he returned to private law practice. In 2002 Brooke was diagnosed with breast cancer and became a national leader in raising awareness of the disease in men, which occurs much less frequently than in women.
Source: Reuters