Edward William Brooke III (October 26, 1919 – January 3, 2015) was an American lawyer and Republican Party politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1967 to 1979.

[12] By the end of the war, Brooke had attained the rank of captain, a Bronze Star Medal, and a Distinguished Service Award.

Despite losing the secretary's race to White, the closeness of the results led to Republican leaders taking notice of Brooke's potential.

[15] Governor John Volpe sought to reward Brooke for his efforts, and offered him a number of jobs, most of them judicial in nature.

[18] He also coordinated with local police departments on the Boston Strangler case, although the press mocked him for permitting an alleged psychic to participate in the investigation.

This included an off-year national convention to "hammer out an agreement for the future of the party" and "draft a responsible platform to address bread-and-butter issues".

[23] By 1965, Brooke had emerged as the main Republican spokesman for racial equality, despite "never rallying his race to challenge segregation barriers with the inspirational fervor of a Martin Luther King.

Yet these were men who consistently voted against legislation that would have provided equal opportunity to others of my race ... it was increasingly evident that some members of the Senate played on bigotry purely for political gain".

During his first formal speech in the Senate following the trip, he reversed his previous position on the Vietnam War that increased negotiations with the North Vietnamese rather than an escalation of the fighting were needed.

He began to favor President Johnson's "patient" approach to Vietnam as he had been convinced that "the enemy is not disposed to participate in any meaningful negotiations".

[27] President Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act into law on April 11, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

[citation needed] In 1969, Congress enacted the "Brooke Amendment" to the federal publicly assisted housing program which limited the tenants' out-of-pocket rent expenditure to 25 percent of their income.

[34] Brooke was a leader of the bipartisan coalition that defeated the Senate confirmation of Clement Haynsworth, President Nixon's nominee to the Supreme Court on November 21, 1969.

[35] A few months later, he again organized sufficient Republican support to defeat Nixon's third Supreme Court nominee Harrold Carswell on April 8, 1970.

[36] The following month, Nixon nominee Harry Blackmun (who later wrote the Roe v. Wade opinion) was confirmed on May 12, 1970, with Brooke voting in favor.

[39] On December 17, 1975, Brooke voted in favor of President Gerald Ford's nomination of John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court.

[27] The press discussed Brooke as a possible replacement for Spiro Agnew as Nixon's running mate in the 1972 presidential election.

Before the first year of his second term ended, Brooke became the first Republican to call on President Nixon to resign,[27] on November 4, 1973, shortly after the Watergate-related "Saturday night massacre".

[42] He had risen to become the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee and on two powerful Appropriations subcommittees, Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Foreign Operations.

The Anti-abortion movement fought, eventually successfully, to prohibit funding for abortions of low-income women insured by Medicaid.

[citation needed] The press again speculated on his possible candidacy for the Vice Presidency as Gerald Ford's running mate in 1976, with Time calling him an "able legislator and a staunch party loyalist".

The Council's purpose is to expand the fraternity's involvement in politics, and social and current policy to encompass international concerns.

Prosecutors eventually determined that Brooke had made false statements about his finances during the divorce, and that they were pertinent, but not material enough to have affected the outcome.

Brooke was not charged with a crime, but the negative publicity cost him some support in his 1978 reelection campaign, and as a result he lost to Paul Tsongas.

[66][67][68] In September 2002, Brooke was diagnosed with breast cancer and assumed a national role in raising awareness of the disease among men.