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November 2, 2009
Former U.S. Senator Edward William Brooke III receives Congressional Gold Medal---
President Obama presented former U.S. Senator Edward William Brooke III with the Congressional Gold Medal for his unprecedented and enduring service to the Nation. The ceremony was held in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Congressional Gold Medal, designed and struck by the United States Mint, honors Senator Brooke's pioneering accomplishments in public service. Senator Brooke broke new ground at a time when few African-Americans held state or Federal office. He was the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, serving with distinction for two terms, from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1979. During his first term, Brooke was appointed to the President's Commission on Civil Disorders, where his work on discrimination in housing served as the basis for the 1968 Civil Rights Act. Brooke began his career in public service as chairman of the Boston Finance Commission, where he established an outstanding record of confronting and eliminating graft and corruption. He proposed groundbreaking legislation for consumer protection and against housing discrimination and air pollution, and made state and national history in 1962 when he was elected Attorney General of Massachusetts. He also served in the U.S. Army's segregated 366th Infantry Regiment during World War II, attaining the rank of captain, and receiving a Bronze Star.
--Nancy Pelosi salutes Former Senator Edward Brooke--"In 1967, that was the year that Senator Brooke came to the United States Senate. At that time, Time Magazine wrote of him: 'He signals a new style and a new hope.' As the first African American popularly elected to the United States Senate, Senator Brooke ignited more than four decades of progress toward the American ideal of equality.
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