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Week Ending March 30, 2006

S.682 A bill to award a congressional gold medal to Edward William Brooke III in recognition of his unprecedented and enduring service to our Nation.

Among the highest honors that can be bestowed on a US civilian is the congressional gold medal. The medals are paid for from the US Treasury Enterprise fund and revenue from bonze replicas of the medal are deposited in that same account.

Edward W. Brooke III was the first African-American elected by popular vote to the US Senate where he served for two terms between January 3, 1967 and January 3, 1979. He was a Republican.

Brooke was into his seventh year of public service when elected to the Senate. He began when he was appointed in 1960 to chair the Boston Finance Commission where he fought graft and corruption.

Brooke was elected to Attorney General of Massachusetts in 1962. President Johnson appoint him to the President’s Commission on Civil Disorder in 1967 where his work led to the basis of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

The Senate, then, finds that “The life and accomplishments of Senator Brooke is inspiring proof, as he says, that `people can be elected on the basis of their qualifications and not their race'.”

Sponsor:  Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)

Vote: Passed Senate by Unanimous Consent March 29, 2007

Cost to the taxpayers: No discernible cost

Earmark Certification:   Not applicable to this bill.

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MORE INFORMATION

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds as follows:

(1) Edward William Brooke III was the first African American elected by popular vote to the United States Senate and served with distinction for 2 terms from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1979.

(2) In 1960, Senator Brooke began his public career when Governor John Volpe appointed him chairman of the Boston Finance Commission, where the young lawyer established an outstanding record of confronting and eliminating graft and corruption and proposed groundbreaking legislation for consumer protection and against housing discrimination and air pollution.

(3) At a time when few African Americans held State or Federal office, Senator Brooke became an exceptional pioneer, beginning in 1962, when he made national and State history by being elected Attorney General of Massachusetts, the first African American in the Nation to serve as a State Attorney General, the second highest office in the State, and the only Republican to win statewide in the election that year, at a time when there were fewer than 1,000 African American officials in our nation.

(4) He won office as a Republican in a state that was strongly Democratic.

(5) As Massachusetts Attorney General, Senator Brooke became known for his fearless and honest execution of the laws of his State and for his vigorous prosecution of organized crime.

(6) The pioneering accomplishments of Edward William Brooke III in public service were achieved although he was raised in Washington, DC at a time when the Nation's capital was a city where schools, public accommodations, and other institutions were segregated, and when the District of Columbia did not have its own self-governing institutions or elected officials.

(7) Senator Brooke graduated from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and went on to graduate from Howard University in 1941.

(8) Senator Brooke's enduring advocacy for self-government and congressional voting rights for the citizens of Washington, DC has roots in his life and personal experience as a native Washingtonian.

(9) Senator Brooke served for 5 years in the United States Army in the segregated 366th Infantry Regiment during World War II in the European theater of operations, attaining the rank of captain and receiving a Bronze Star Medal for `heroic or meritorious achievement or service' and the Distinguished Service Award.

(10) After the war, Senator Brooke attended Boston University School of Law, where he served as editor of the school's Law Review, graduating with an LL.B. in 1948 and an LL.M. in 1949, and made Massachusetts his home.

(11) During his career in Congress, Senator Brooke was a leader on some of the most critical issues of his time, including the war in Vietnam, the struggle for civil rights, the shameful system of apartheid in South Africa, the Cold War, and United States' relations with the People's Republic of China.

(12) President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Senator Brooke to the President's Commission on Civil Disorders in 1967, where his work on discrimination in housing would serve as the basis for the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

(13) Senator Brooke continued to champion open housing when he left the Senate and became the head of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.

(14) Senator Brooke has been recognized with many high honors, among them the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, an honor that recognizes `an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors'; the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit from the Government of Italy; a State courthouse dedicated in his honor by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, making him the first African American to have a State courthouse named in his honor; the NAACP Spingarn Medal; and the Charles Evans Hughes award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

(15) Senator Brooke's biography, Bridging The Divide: My Life, was published in 2006, and he is the author of The Challenge of Change: Crisis in Our Two-Party System, published in 1966.

(16) Senator Brooke became a racial pioneer, but race was never at the center of his political campaigns.

(17) He demonstrated to all that with commitment, determination, and strength of character, even the barriers once thought insurmountable can be overcome.

(18) He has devoted his life to the service of others, and made enormous contributions to our society today.

(19) The life and accomplishments of Senator Brooke is inspiring proof, as he says, that `people can be elected on the basis of their qualifications and not their race'.

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