Edward William Brooke
From dKosopedia
Categories: Massachusetts Republicans | Afro-American Republicans
Brooke, Edward William III
Republican Senator from Massachusetts, 1967-1979, and the first black person to be popularly elected to the US Senate.
Brooke was born in 1919 in Washington, D.C. He attended Howard University and Boston University Law School. After working as a finance commissioner in Boston, he was elected Attorney General of Massachusetts in 1962. In 1966, he ran for the US Senate to replace longtime Republican Senator Leverett Saltonstall. In the election, he defeated former Governor Endicott Peabody, and took his seat in January 1967. He won re-election in 1972. After a high-profile divorce and political battles with President Nixon, Brooke was defeated for a third term in 1978 by Rep. Paul Tsongas.