[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 153 (Wednesday, October 21, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H11540-H11542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1145
 AUTHORIZING USE OF CAPITOL ROTUNDA FOR PRESENTATION OF CONGRESSIONAL 
               GOLD MEDAL TO FORMER SENATOR EDWARD BROOKE

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules 
and concur in the concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 43) authorizing 
the use of the rotunda of the Capitol for the presentation of the 
Congressional Gold Medal to former Senator Edward Brooke.
  The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
  The text of the concurrent resolution is as follows:

                            S. Con. Res. 43

       Whereas 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;
       Whereas on March 29, 2007, the United States Senate passed 
     S. 682, sponsored by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy with 
     68 co-sponsors, by unanimous consent, to award Senator Brooke 
     the Congressional Gold Medal;
       Whereas on June 10, 2008, the House passed S. 682 under 
     suspension of the rules by voice vote and a similar measure, 
     H.R. 1000 was introduced in the House by Representative 
     Eleanor Holmes Norton with 286 co-sponsors; and
       Whereas the President signed the bill on July 1, 2008, and 
     it became Public Law 110-260: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring),

     SECTION 1. USE OF THE ROTUNDA OF THE CAPITOL FOR THE 
                   PRESENTATION OF THE CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

       The rotunda of the United States Capitol is authorized to 
     be used on October 28, 2009, for the presentation of the 
     Congressional Gold Medal to former Senator Edward Brooke. 
     Physical preparations for the conduct of the ceremony shall 
     be carried out in accordance with such conditions as may be 
     prescribed by the Architect of the Capitol.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Brady) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Daniel 
E. Lungren) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous matter on the resolution under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this measure allows for a Congressional Gold Medal 
ceremony for the first elected African American to the Senate, Edward 
Brooke. Senator Brooke was first elected from Massachusetts to the 
Senate in 1966 and served two terms.
  While a Member of the Senate, Brooke championed extension of the 
Voting Rights Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and 
women's rights. Most notably, he fought to retain Title IX of the 1972 
Education Act which guarantees equal education opportunity for girls 
and women. He also was a champion of affordable housing, resulting in 
the 1969 amendment to limit the amount of out-of-pocket expenses for 
public housing tenants.
  After Senator Brooke's defeat in 1978, it would be 14 years before 
the second African American would be elected to the Senate.
  I congratulate Senator Brooke on his service, and I urge all Members 
to support the resolution.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such 
time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to support this resolution authorizing 
the use of the rotunda of the Capitol for the presentation of the 
Congressional Gold Medal to the distinguished former Senator, Edward 
Brooke.
  Edward Brooke, III, was born here in Washington, D.C., in October of 
1919. He graduated from Dunbar High School

[[Page H11541]]

and attended Howard University, graduating in 1941. It was after the 
attack on Pearl Harbor that he served with the 336th Combat Infantry 
Regiment, fighting in the Italian campaign and earning a Bronze Star in 
1943.
  After the war, he earned two law degrees from Boston University Law 
School, serving as editor of the Law Review. It was while practicing 
law in Boston that he ran for but was defeated twice, attempting to 
serve in the Massachusetts Legislature, and then once again trying to 
become secretary of state. But he was undeterred.
  In 1961, he chaired the Boston Finance Commission, charged with 
rooting out corruption, and was then elected attorney general the next 
year. He was the first African American in this country to serve as a 
State attorney general, and was then reelected to the post in 1964.
  In 1966, he ran for Senator in Massachusetts as a Republican. He was 
successful and his election was historic. When Vice President Hubert 
Humphrey administered his oath of office, Senator Brooke became the 
first African American Senator in the United States Senate since 1881 
and the first African American popularly elected to the Senate in our 
Nation's history. He served in the Senate from 1967 to 1979.
  During his tenure in office, he drew from his war experience and was 
a tireless proponent of equal justice under the law. His regiment in 
World War II had only been comprised of African Americans, and he was 
quoted as saying, ``In every regard, we were treated as second class 
soldiers, if not worse, and we were angry. I felt a personal 
frustration and bitterness I had not known before in my life.''
  But rather than remain bitter, he served with great honor in the 
various offices to which he was elected. While in office, he was 
appointed by President Johnson to serve on the famous Kerner 
Commission, was a cosponsor of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and fought 
for the renewal of the historic Voting Rights Act.
  After his service in the Senate, he chaired the National Low Income 
Housing Coalition, he practiced law, and served on the Wartime 
Relocation and Internment of Civilians Commission. I was honored to 
serve with Senator Brooke on that commission almost 20 years ago. The 
work we did was immensely important in attempting to ascertain 
fundamental justice, an historic record for those Japanese Americans 
who were interned during World War II. Senator Brooke's presence was 
immeasurable in the process of bringing the legislation to completion.
  Senator Brooke had a fiercely independent mind and he garnered 
respect from persons holding all philosophical persuasions. Senator 
Kennedy and Representative Holmes Norton both sponsored resolutions 
granting this Congressional Gold Medal. It is my distinct pleasure to 
join them in honoring Senator Brooke.
  As a fellow Republican, I humbly and proudly share his philosophy. 
Reflecting on his time in public service, he once stated, ``I was proud 
to be a Republican, but my ultimate loyalty was to certain goals and 
ideals, not to party.''
  Mr. Speaker, one week from today we will honor an extremely worthy 
man in the rotunda. His life, his commitment, his perseverance, his 
dedication, they all serve as an example and an inspiration for us to 
emulate.
  I thank my chairman for bringing this to the floor. I urge my 
colleagues to join me in supporting this important authorization.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).
  Ms. NORTON. I thank the gentleman not only for yielding, but for his 
work in bringing this matter to the floor, and I associate myself with 
his remarks and with the remarks of my good friend on the other side of 
the aisle.
  Seldom do we get an opportunity to applaud and find an appropriate 
way to recognize a truly historic figure. That is what we are about to 
do a week from today when we give our highest honor, the Congressional 
Gold Medal, to former Senator Edward W. Brooke.
  Senator Kennedy would very much have wanted to be present next 
Wednesday. He quickly gathered his two-thirds of the signatures on his 
side to give the medal to Senator Brooke, the first African American to 
be popularly elected to the United States Senate. We are aware that 
there were African Americans in the Senate during the Civil War, but 
that was before the South had come back into the Union. So 100 years or 
so were to go by before another African American was to be elected.
  But what an improbable man; a Republican from the then Democratic, 
still Democratic State of Massachusetts, where only 2 percent of the 
residents were African American. It is a tribute to the State of 
Massachusetts, to be sure. It is a tribute to the Republican Party that 
a man of this quality would step forward.
  My interest, of course, comes from his roots. Senator Edward Brooke 
was born and raised in the District of Columbia. He is who he is 
because he was born in the segregated District of Columbia, overcame 
those barriers and went on to see his life for what he could make of 
it.
  Senator Brooke is going to be 90 years old 2 days before the Congress 
awards this medal. He is in extraordinary shape. I love to hear him 
talk, because he talks with such eloquence, as if he were still on the 
Senate floor. But it should be known that Senator Brooke has had breast 
cancer, and obviously he has some of the infirmities associated with 
age. Among those, however, is not his signature modesty.
  He has worked diligently for the D.C. House Voting Rights Act, which 
we are close, if we just continue, to finally getting this year. He 
called some of his friends, his fellow Republicans and Democrats in the 
Senate, and I thought it would be quite appropriate to give him the 
medal now in the year that we are seeking to pass the D.C. Voting 
Rights Act, which he cosponsored time and again when he was in the 
Senate.
  So, his modesty notwithstanding, we started down this road, got our 
two-thirds in the House as well, and we are about now to welcome this 
historic figure home again. Remember, we have had only three African 
American Senators and the first African American President, and he is 
going to be here, because he recognizes the historic significance of 
Senator Brooke's life.
  You should know, however, that this man came through the fire to 
where he is. Yes, he was born to parents who worked in the government 
and educated their children, but he went off to fight in World War II 
in the 366th Combat Infantry Regiment, which was a segregated regiment. 
He advanced to be a combat decorated officer. He went to law school at 
Boston University School of Law and edited their Law Review, and that 
is how they got the prize that is Edward Brooke there in the first 
place.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. I will yield the gentlewoman 2 more 
minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Not only was Edward Brooke the first African American to 
serve in the Senate, Senator Brooke began by breaking barriers. He was 
the first African American in the United States to be elected as State 
attorney general and the first to be elected to statewide office.
  Here is a man that made the most of whatever office he had. That was 
the time of the famous ``Boston Strangler'' case, and Senator Brooke 
adopted a very broad notion of his role as attorney general and the 
State's chief law enforcement officer by bringing the county district 
attorneys together, the fragmented police forces, and coordinating the 
multiple jurisdictions to successfully conclude that massive 
investigation.

                              {time}  1200

  It was 1966 that he prepared to come to the Senate. We were just 
passing the civil rights laws which he, himself, helped engineer; and 
in 1967 he came to the Senate, and the list of laws he is responsible 
for is indeed long: his leadership on the 1968 Housing Act; his 
leadership in the battle to uphold the Voting Rights Act; the Brooke 
amendment, providing that tenants of public housing pay no more than 25 
percent of their income for housing; his leadership on the creation of 
Washington's Metro system, which most of the staff here use, and much 
more.
  Senator Brooke has written his autobiography, published in 2007, 
``Bridging the Divide, My Life, Senator Edward W. Brooke.'' It 
certainly would be a marriage of historical events if we were, as I 
believe we will, to pass the D.C. Voting Rights Act in this very year 
that Senator Edward Brooke, who championed the rights of the city and 
of all Americans, is honored here.

[[Page H11542]]

  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. I reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern).
  Mr. McGOVERN. I just wanted to come to the floor as a native of 
Massachusetts to say how proud I am that we will honor Edward Brooke 
with a Congressional Gold Medal. And I am proud of all the 
accomplishments of Senator Brooke. He was a Republican, and I'm a 
Democrat and I come from a family of Democrats. But my very first vote 
when I was eligible to vote was for Senator Brooke. And I voted for him 
in spite of the fact that he was a Republican.
  I voted for him because I believed in him and I believed in what he 
stood for. I admired his being a champion of civil rights, of human 
rights. I admired his work on the Voting Rights Act and so many other 
areas. He was a historic figure, it has been pointed out the first 
popularly elected African American to serve in the United States 
Senate. But he was a man who had the common touch and who represented 
the people of Massachusetts with great dignity, and I am proud that my 
first vote was for Ed Brooke. I look forward to being there when he is 
honored.
  But I wanted to just say, as somebody from Massachusetts, that this 
is a really special tribute for an extraordinary man. And I am very 
proud that this House is doing that.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such 
time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that I enjoyed the remarks of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern). I would just make one 
correction. He said that Senator Brooke was a Republican. As far as I 
understand he still is a Republican. And one of the things I was 
looking forward to when I was first elected in 1978 was joining people 
in my party such as Senator Brooke and having an opportunity to work 
with him.
  I was saddened in 1978 when he lost for reelection at that point in 
time, but then was privileged to work with him on that national 
commission. And I found him to be a gentleman above all, a real 
gentleman with a soft-spoken manner who listened to what others had to 
say, did not put himself out front, but tried to get to the business at 
hand in a very intelligent, very dedicated, very persistent way.
  So this is truly an honor, not only for him, but for this Congress 
that we are recognizing the service of this great American at this time 
and that we're doing it with the congressional honor, and that we will 
have this here in the rotunda of the United States.
  Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of 
S. Con. Res. 43, a resolution authorizing the use of the rotunda of the 
Capitol for the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to former 
Massachusetts Senator Edward W. Brooke III.
  There are few individuals more deserving of a Congressional Gold 
Medal, the highest award of national appreciation from the U.S. 
Congress, than my friend, the former Senator of my state, Ed Brooke.
  Throughout Senator Brooke's life, he has worked to bridge the great 
divides in our country.
  In 1966, in the crucible of racism, prejudice, and segregation, 
Senator Edward W. Brooke stood as an embodiment of the change our 
country needed to move beyond the dark legacy of racial discrimination 
and prejudice in America. The first popularly elected African-America 
Senator, Senator Brooke's election stood as an example of what our 
nation could be when he noted that the voters of Massachusetts saw 
beyond skin color to ``judge you on your merit and your worth alone''.
  When asked to comment on what many considered to be an improbable 
electoral victory, Senator Brooke responded by saying he was committed 
to ``unite men who have not been united before.'' Throughout his tenure 
in the U.S. Senate, Senator Brooke did just that. Senator Brooke sought 
to reduce the economic and racial division in our country, particularly 
in the area of U.S. housing policy. Senator Brooke co-authored the Fair 
Housing Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in the sale, 
rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, or national 
origin. Still, to this very day, the Fair Housing Act remains a 
cornerstone of our housing policy.
  On all issues of justice and equality, regardless of sex, race, or 
religion, there has been no stronger advocate. When Title IX of the 
1972 Education Act was in jeopardy in the Senate, Senator Brooke took 
the lead to ensure that women and girls would be guaranteed equal 
educational opportunities. When the extension and expansion of the 
Voting Rights Act came before the Senate in 1975, it was the respected 
voice of Senator Brooke that helped to garner an extension of the 
Voting Rights Act. Whenever there was an opportunity to protect and 
defend the fundamental civil rights of Americans who had suffered from 
discrimination, Senator Brooke was there, serving as a powerful voice 
for justice.
  Thirty years later, Senator Brooke's legacy is reflected by an 
America that is very different from the nation that existed when he 
first arrived in the Senate, an America which has made enormous 
progress in breaking down the barriers of racial discrimination and 
inequality that once divided our nation.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, I stand to support and recognize a great leader, 
who never lost his passion for bridging our nation's divides by uniting 
men and women under the belief that we all are created equal.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of S. Con. 
Res. 43 and yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Salazar). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Brady) that the House 
suspend the rules and concur in the concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 
43.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand 
the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

                          ____________________