Best Not Forgotten

He has triggered none of the frustrated fury of a Stokely Carmichael, written none of the rancorous tracts of a James Baldwin or a LeRoi Jones, drawn none of the huzzahs of a Louis Armstrong or a Joe Louis, a Willie Mays or a Rafer Johnson. He has never sought or wanted to be a symbol of negritude.

Time Magazine February 17, 1967

The man described above was born in Washington DC and had a middle-class upbringing where he attended the segregated, excellent, and now famous, Dunbar High School. He then went to Howard University and graduated in 1941 just in time to enter the army as a 2nd lieutenant and joined the 366th Combat Infantry Regiment where he fought in Italy. He won a Bronze Star for leading an attack on a hilltop artillery battery.

After the war he attended Boston University Law School and married a woman he met in Italy. He ran for office the first time in 1950. He held various offices including Attorney General of Massachusetts. In 1967, he became the first black man since Reconstruction to serve in the United States Senate and the first to be popularly elected to the position.

Who is this man and why is he not better known? His name is Edward William Brooke III. As for why he is not better known, it is hard to say but these things likely have something to do with it.

• He was a Republican.
• His wife was white.
• He believed civil rights was “not purely a Negro problem. It’s a social and economic problem…”
• He questioned the Great Society: “aspirin — it relieves the pain, but it doesn’t cure”.
• Brooke refused to hire people because of their skin color.

Senator Brooke appeared to be a man who enjoyed success and the things that came with it. He was thoughtful and forged his own path based on what he believed was right, even if when it was difficult. He was a great American we should all know and be proud of.