Brooke, Edward William (1919-2015), a Massachusetts Republican, served in the United States Senate from 1967 to 1979. He became the first African American elected to the Senate since the Reconstruction period after the American Civil War (1861-1865). Brooke was also the first African American ever elected to the Senate by popular vote. He defeated Endicott Peabody, a white Democrat and former governor of Massachusetts. The state had a heavily Democratic and 98-percent white population.
Brooke was born on Oct. 26, 1919, in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Howard University in 1941. He served in the Army in Italy during World War II (1939-1945) and received the Bronze Star for bravery. After the war, Brooke earned a law degree from Boston University. He was elected attorney general of Massachusetts in 1962 and was reelected in 1964. As attorney general, he gained nationwide fame for exposing corruption in the Massachusetts state government. In 1967, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awarded Brooke its Spingarn Medal. Brooke died on Jan. 3, 2015.
