Going Home For An American Leader: Sen. Edward W. Brooke
A memorial service will be held for former Senator Edward W. Brooke on Tuesday, March 10, at the Washington National Cathedral. The service will begin at 11 am.
Services are open to the public. Seating will be on a first come, first served basis. Eulogists will be Secretary of State John Kerry, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Edward W. Brooke IV, and Milton Davis, civil rights lawyer.
Burial with full military honors will be at 3 pm at Arlington National Cemetery.
Brooke, 95, passed away Jan. 3, 2015 at his home in Coral Gables.
The two-term Republican senator from Massachusetts was the first African American to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote and the only African American senator to be re-elected to a second term.
During his Senate career, Brooke fought for low-income housing -- earning the title, "Mr. Housing" -- co-authored with Sen. Walter Mondale the landmark 1968 Fair Housing Law, championed civil rights, and was a vocal and early advocate of improving relations with Communist China. He was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to serve on the Kerner Commission that investigated racial tensions in the wake of widespread violence in the 1960s.
Brooke was born Oct. 26, 1919 in Washington, D.C. He attended Dunbar High School, Howard University, and attended Boston University Law School. He served in the U.S. Army, seeing combat in Italy during World War II as a member of the segregated 366th Infantry Regiment, and earned a Bronze Star.
Brooke’s election drew national and international attention with the overwhelming victory of a black, Episcopalian Republican in a predominantly white, Catholic and Democratic state.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Brooke’s name may be made to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, 727 15th Street NW, 6th floor, Washington, DC 20005