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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Edward Brooke
Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Senator Edward William Brooke thanks President George W. Bush after receiving his award in the East Room of the White House on June 23, 2004.
11distinguished individuals to receive Medal of Freedom at the White House
Senator Edward W. Brooke
President George W. Bush will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor on Wednesday June 23, 2004, to Mormon Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, actress Doris Day, golfer Arnold Palmer, politician Edward Brooke, historian Vartan Gregorian, National Geographic Society Chairman Gilbert Grosvenor, cosmetics mogul Estee Lauder, actress Rita Moreno, ophthalmology researcher Arnall Patz, journalist Norman Podhoretz and economist and banker Walter Wriston the White House announced Friday.
They will join Pope John Paul II and journalist Robert Bartley as 2004 recipients.
President Truman established the award in 1945 to honor civilian contributions during World War II. It was reinstated by President Kennedy in 1963 to recognize distinguished peacetime service. The medal has been conferred on roughly 400 individuals since its introduction.
Bush will present the medals at a White House ceremony on Wednesday, although the president delivered the award to the pope during a visit to the Vatican earlier this month.
Honorees are recommended to the president by a Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board. Past recipients include former presidents, astronauts, entertainers, scientists, religious leaders and victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Edward William Brooke
Attorney and U.S. Senator
Edward W. Brooke was born October 26, 1919, in Washington, DC, and educated at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and Howard University where he received his Bachelor of Science degree. During World War II he was a decorated officer with the 366th Combat Infantry Regiment in Italy. Following the war, Brooke entered Boston University's School of Law where he received his LL.D. and LL.M. degrees and was an editor of the Law Review. He engaged in the practice of law in Roxbury and Boston from 1948 until 1961 when he was appointed Chairman of the Boston Finance Commission, a watchdog agency for the City of Boston, where he quickly began ferreting out corruption and proposed legislation to close loopholes in the law.
In 1962 Brooke became the first African American in the United States to be elected as a state's Attorney General. Working closely with the newly created Massachusetts Crime Commission vigorously probed corruption in state government, furthering his reputation as a crime fighter. In the public panic over 14 women in what would become known as "the Boston Strangler Case," Brooke coordinated county district attorneys offices and fragmented police investigative efforts spanning multiple jurisdictions and successfully concluding the massive investigation.
In 1966 Brooke became the first African American popularly elected to the United States Senate, the first African American to serve since Reconstruction, and the first and only to be re-elected. During his distinguished Senate career Brooke strongly opposed escalation of the Vietnam War, fought the MIRV and ABM proposals that would have expanded Cold War nuclear arsenals and was the catalyst in bringing about improved relations leading to the recognition of the People's Republic of China. He led efforts to block the nominations of anti-Civil Rights Judges Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court and was the first Republican Senator to call for the President Richard Nixon's resignation in the aftermath of the Watergate break-in and cover up.
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Medal History
