[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 19 (Wednesday, February 6, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1930
          EDWARD W. BROOKE III, UNITED STATES SENATOR, RETIRED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I come to the floor for a special purpose 
this evening, a purpose that I think every Member of this House would 
want to join in during Black History Month. It is a rare bipartisan 
opportunity to honor a man whom I think Democrats and Republicans alike 
are equally proud of. He is a lifelong Republican, and yet, I, a 
lifelong Democrat, have come to ask Members to sign on to H.R. 1000, a 
bill to honor the first African American popularly elected to serve in 
the Senate of the United States. You heard me. He was not a Democrat, 
he was a Republican, and his name is Edward W. Brooke III, United 
States Senator from Massachusetts, 1967 to 1979.
  I come during Black History Month because I think it would be a 
wonderful opportunity for the House on both sides of the aisle to do 
something together that both wanted to do, instead of simply talking 
about Black History Month in the abstract, doing something for a former 
Member of the United States Congress who indeed was African American. 
His service was of such quality that the President of the United 
States, several years ago, already awarded former Senator Brooke the 
highest national medal that our government can offer, the Presidential 
Medal of Freedom. But the highest medal we can offer is the 
Congressional Gold Medal. The Senate, where Senator Brooke served, has 
already unanimously passed this resolution. This is a special time, I 
think, that the House would want to follow suit.

  I want to note, Madam Speaker, just how broad range was the support 
in the Senate. When you have Senator Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell on 
the same bill to honor this former Senator, I think it says it all. 
When you have Senators ranging from Senator Edward Kennedy to Senator 
Ted Stevens, I think that is the very definition of a bipartisan bill, 
and they were among the cosponsors.
  Why did they do this? Why has Senator Brooke already gotten the 
highest medal that the President of the United States can offer? It is 
because of his distinguished career in the Senate; it is because he did 
a breakthrough at the time that breakthroughs were not even done; and 
it is because of his service in other ways.
  He received the Bronze Star, the Distinguished Service Award, and the 
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit from the Italian Government for his 
leadership during 195 days in combat in Italy as a captain in World War 
II in the segregated 366th Combat Infantry Regiment. That, Madam 
Speaker, is the very definition of a patriot.
  I, of course, know about Senator Brooke. This is perhaps somewhat 
personal to me, because he was born and raised in the District of 
Columbia. Mind you, his greatest service did not occur in this city as 
a native Washingtonian, but only in this city after he was elected to 
the Senate.
  He was born and raised in segregated Washington, DC. The city was as 
segregated as any southern city then, including its public schools, the 
very public school from which I graduated as well, Dunbar High School. 
He was educated at Howard University and then went to Howard Law 
School, and hadn't left the District of Columbia until he went to serve 
in the Armed Forces of the United States.
  Then somehow he realized there were greener pastures than his own 
hometown, and he went to Massachusetts to set up the practice of law 
and got the idea in his head that in a State with almost no African 
Americans, with almost no Democrats, he could get to be, first, the 
first black Attorney General in the United States, and then the first 
Senator elected by popular vote to the United States Senate.
  We all know that it is very difficult for an African American or a 
person of any minority to be elected statewide. When this happened in 
the mid-sixties, I think we stand in awe of what kind of man it must 
have taken to have effected this change then.
  So I ask Members if they will, before this month is over, and there 
are other Members trying to help me do so, join most of the Members of 
the House who have already signed on to H.R. 1000 to award the 
Congressional Gold Medal.

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