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The first Black American to be elected as a Senator was Edward William Brooke III. He was born on 26 October 1919, in Washington, D.C. Edward Brooke was elected as a Republican from Massachusetts in 1966.

Edward Brooke's father was a attorney for the Veterans Administration. Edward attended Howards University in 1937, and graduated in 1941. He served in the segregated 366th Infantry Regiment for five years. In 1948, after his discharge he graduated from Boston University Law School.

He made three tries to get into office, but lost. Between 1961 and 1962, Edward Brooke was the chairman of the Finance Commission of Boston. In 1962 he was elected as Attorney General of Massachusetts. He was then re-elected in 1964. Edward Brooke's served as a U.S senator for two terms, from 3 January 1967, till 3 January 1979. In 1967, he served on the President's Commission on Civil Disorders. He often had conflicts with President Nixon, and was a member of the Republican Party's liberal wing. Edward Brooke was re-elected in 1972. But a much publicised divorce cost him alot of his popularity during the second term. He lost his bid for a third term in 1978 to the Democratics. He became head of the Low Income Housing Coalition after he left the Senate.

In 1996, he became the first chairman of Alpha Phi Alpha's World Policy Council. It was this organisations purpose to expand the fraternity's political involvement. Currently he serves as the council's chairman emeritus and he was the honorary chairman at the Centennial Convention of Alpha Phi Alpha in Washington in 2006.

In September 2002, Edward Brooke was diagnosed with breast cancer, and has since begun to raise awareness in the disease amongst men. Edward Brooke has two daughters and a son. He currently lives wife his wife Anne, in Miami.

Edward Brooke received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, a medal which is awarded to individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

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