Talk:Edward Brooke

First African American  ??

First African Americen to be elected Senator? How about Blanche Bruce and Hiram Rhoades Revels --170.35.208.20 20:24, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

You're playing fast and loose with the definition of the word "elected". I am not sure what EVERY State did before the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. For all I know every State was free to set up its own procedure for choosing that State's Senators. And maybe some States DID have popular election of its U.S. Senators before 1913. But it's perfectly reasonable to assume that if Blanche Bruce and Hiram Rhoades Revels served before Edward Brooke, he can STILL be the first African-American Senator to be ELECTED. All that you have to do to resolve any perceived inconsistency is to postulate that Blanche Bruce and Hiram Rhoades Revels served before the Seventeenth Amendment and obtained their Senate seats by whatever OTHER means their respective States were using at the time of THEIR service to choose Senators, and that the mechanism for their obtaining of their seats was NOT an election, as later required by the Seventeenth Amendment. The sentence doesn't say he was the first African-American Senator, but, only, that he was the first ELECTED African-American Senator. If Blanche Bruce and Hiram Rhoades Revels were not ELECTED, they don't count as "first" for this purpose. (And even if the Constitution requires something like, say, a vote amongst State Legislators to appoint the Senator, I mean, get real, in common parlance that is not an "Election of a Senator", just as when State Legislators vote on a Bill or Resolution we don't say that the Bill or Resolution was "elected" to become a law or a statement of the opinion of the State. We would, in common parlance, say that the Legislature voted in order to APPOINT, not ELECT, the person.)2600:1700:6759:B000:E894:BFCC:705D:880 (talk) 04:36, 16 August 2024 (UTC)Christopher Lawrence Simpson

Rhodes and Bruce went to the Senate before the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment which stipulated direct election of Senators. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shsilver (talk • contribs) 16:44, 25 July 2005

If any of you REALLY want know who Edward W Brooke is, please read his book, BRIDGING THE DIVIDE. Ed Brooke reconizes he was the first African American to be elected since reconstruction. I went to a book signing. Spoke of this. There have been only five African Americans every elected to the Senate. Hiram Rhoades Revels 1870, Blanche Kelso Bruce 1870, Edward W Brook 1966, Carol Mosely Braun 1993, and Barack Obama 2004. As to his COLOR, he has been fighting cancer. His treatments my have been the cause. If Ed Brooke saw this question, he would be very disappointed. I leave you will what he wrote in my ll year old daughter's book: "With best wishs for a life filled with purpose, achivement, and joy!" Sincerly Ed Brooke

What you wrote about his inscription in your daughter's book makes no sense in regards to a discussion of his color. How does his inscription touch upon his color in any way? Anyway, long before Edward Brooke had cancer, he never looked particularly black. That's a result of Southern white-supremacist racist theory that says if you have ONE black ancestor, you're black. It's a ridiculous outdated paleolithic standard that isn't applied with equal consistency to any other ethnicity.2600:1700:6759:B000:E894:BFCC:705D:880 (talk) 04:36, 16 August 2024 (UTC)Christopher Lawrence Simpson

Don't be sure that either Hiram Rhoades Revels or Blanche Kelso were ELECTED to their Senate seats. If they served before 1913, they might have been APPOINTED by some process other than what we call an Election, which is when ordinary citizens who have the right to vote go to the polls on Election Day.2600:1700:6759:B000:E894:BFCC:705D:880 (talk) 04:36, 16 August 2024 (UTC)Christopher Lawrence Simpson

Revels and Bruce were elected in the same way every senator was prior to the 17th amendment ratified in 1913, and that was they were elected by the state legislatures. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.195.66.48 (talk) 14:52, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

If Legislators ever voted to determine who that State's Senator would be, that is, in English as it is understood today, "APPOINTING" the Senator, not "ELECTING" the Senator.2600:1700:6759:B000:E894:BFCC:705D:880 (talk) 04:36, 16 August 2024 (UTC)Christopher Lawrence Simpson

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Barbara Walters Affair

I see no mention of his affair with Barbara Walters. While not the measure of a man, it did become public and was a notable event in his life. Should it not be mentioned in 2 or 3 lines? Seki1949 (talk) 18:06, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

Do you have any reliable sources on which such an addition could be based? --JBL (talk) 18:16, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

From the Barbara Waters page: In Walters's autobiography Audition, she claimed that she had an affair in the 1970s with Edward Brooke, then a married United States Senator from Massachusetts. It is not clear whether Walters also was married at the time. Walters said they ended the affair to protect their careers from scandal.[73]

I'll check to see what else I can find. As a proposal: In Barbara Waters autobiography Audition, she stated that she and the then married Brooke had an affair.Seki1949 (talk) 19:13, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/us/edward-brooke-pioneering-us-senator-in-massachusetts-dies-at-95.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seki1949 (talk • contribs) 19:16, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

"In May 2008, the television newswoman Barbara Walters revealed in a memoir that she and Mr. Brooke had begun a clandestine romance in 1973. After telling him in a letter that she would divulge the affair in her book, he wrote back “a very nice note,” Ms. Walters said." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seki1949 (talk • contribs) 19:27, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

Holds the remarkable distinction of not only being a U.S. Senator but also holding a U.S. Senate seat. What an achievement!

As I type this, the article contains the text "and he was the first African-American United States senator since 1881 to have held a United States Senate seat". So, of all of the African-American United States [S]enators since 1881, Brooke was the only one to hold a United States Senate seat. The other United States Senators who both (a) were African-American and (b) serving after 1881 were not also (c) holders of a United States Senate seat, despite being United States senators. Please explain in the article (I'm past having anything explained to ME at this point) how it's possible to be a United States Senator of ANY ethnicity and NOT hold a United States Senate seat. What is the difference between being a U.S. Senator and "holding a United States Senate seat"? It's possible to do one and not do the other, but I don't see how. Maybe Wikipedia could take some of the money it's always asking people to donate and spend it on fixing my brain so that I can get my ahead around being a U.S. Senator while NOT holding a U.S. Senate seat. It's time for Wikipedia to admit that they do this to me deliberately. They KNOW I can't take it anymore, and am on the brink. They're trying to push me over the edge. And succeeding.2600:1700:6759:B000:E894:BFCC:705D:880 (talk) 04:36, 16 August 2024 (UTC)Christopher Lawrence Simpson