Edward Brooke dies, 95

By adamg on Sat, 01/03/2015 - 5:41pm

Edward Brooke: Asking Nixon to Resign

The Herald reports the death of Edward Brooke, who served as one of our senators from 1967 to 1979 and who was the first black elected to the Senate since Reconstruction.

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Politics

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Comments

Bless him

By LLK on Sat, 01/03/2015 - 6:11pm.

He made us proud, showed us and the nation that principle and commitment to public service mattered more than political affiliation.

Thank you Senator. RIP.

I know he was very helpful to the family of a white man who was a victim of a racially motivated crime. That same family was ignored by multiple other local politicians of the same racial and ethnic background as they are.

God Bless Sen. Brooke and the GOP!

By O-FISH-L on Sun, 01/04/2015 - 7:08am.

who served as one of our senators from 1967 to 1979 and who was the first black elected to the Senate since Reconstruction

Is that your tribute to this most historic figure, Adam? One sentence? Really?

May God shine on you, Senator Brooke and your Republican party. With Democrat leaders like Bull Connor letting loose the dogs on young blacks, the Kennedy's bugging of Republican MLK's phone and KKK activist / Democrat Majority Whip Sen. Robert Byrd's frequent use of the "n" word on the Senate floor during and after your own Senate service, you were an inspiration to us all.

As the first black Attorney General of any state, your prosecution of several members of the administration of Governor Foster Furculo (D-Cambridge) hearkens to a pre-Coakley day when AG's actually did something, other than seek higher office. Thanks, also for your brave military service. It would be nice these days to have a black leader who put country ahead of race. Requiescat in pace, Senator.

Correction:

By bibliotequetressnotloggedin... on Sun, 01/04/2015 - 8:08am.

If you'd like to spend less than two hours doing research at Dot's very own Kennedy Presidential Library sometime, you'll find that JFK did not know Hoover had ordered the tapping of MLK. At least 10 years have passed since I did research on something else but came across multiple primary sources regarding this, so some of the details are fuzzy, but as I recall Hoover met with (I think) Robert Kennedy in the spring or summer of 1963 and played for him tapes that indicated King was having an affair-- not sure if it was of King with a woman, or talking about a woman with someone else. Hoover was trying to manipulate the White House into acting against the March on Washington that August. He made allegations against a lot of the leaders in the movement as well as King, mostly sourced to gossip by the white opposition, or to a particular disgruntled source in Georgia who resented Bayard Ruskin. And if Hoover couldn't prevent the March itself, he wanted to stop President Kennedy from meeting directly with King. The President was not aware of the wiretap before being told about it by his brother (again, if I'm remembering correctly it was Robert Kennedy).

Obviously, Hoover did not succeed in stopping the meeting, but he did cause trouble.

Feel free to call the research desk at the Kennedy Library tomorrow, or see if you can find the information on their website. They may be able to give you the correct information and citations over the phone. We are lucky to have a trove of primary source material on this very historic point so nearby. And it's in the custody of the National Archives, so anyone at all can go see it! No excuse not to.

I'm sure you wouldn't want to spread scurrilous lies about a President who Edward Brooke respected, when you can so easily find accurate information yourself. Given that you have time to type, you obviously have time to research.

Yale a breath, cuckoo nuts...

By MatthewC on Sun, 01/04/2015 - 9:52am.

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