Congessional Gold Medal for Massachusetts AG and Senator Edward Brooke

Today President Obama conferred the Congressional Gold Medal on former 
Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke, the first African-American Attorney General and later the first elected African-American US Senator. In his remarks, Obama said:

…when he ran for statewide office in Massachusetts, and one reporter pointed out that he was black, Republican, and Protestant, seeking office in a white, Democratic, and Catholic state — and also, quote, “…a carpetbagger from the South and…poor” — Ed was unfazed. It was, to say the least, an improbable profile for the man who would become the first African American state attorney general, and the first popularly elected African American senator.

But that was Ed Brooke’s way — to ignore the naysayers, reject the conventional wisdom, and trust that ultimately, people would judge him on his character, his commitment, his record and his ideas. He ran for office, as he put it, “…to bring people together who had never been together before.” And that he did.

I don’t know anyone else whose fan base includes Gloria Steinem, Barney Frank, and Ted Kennedy — as well as Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, and George W. Bush. (Laughter.) That’s a coalition-builder.

Brooke won his senate seat by defeating Endicott Peabody in 1966 and was succeeded by Paul Tsongas in 1979.