Norton Speaks as House Passes Bill Permitting Rare Use of Rotunda for DC Native Son Edward Brooke
Norton Speaks as House Passes Bill Permitting Rare Use of Rotunda for D.C. Native Son Edward Brooke Gold Medal Ceremony Next Wed.
WASHINGTON, DC - As she closes in passing the D.C. House Voting Rights Act, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today spoke on the House floor in favor of a resolution authorizing the use of the Capitol Rotunda for a ceremony awarding the highest Congressional honor to native Washingtonian, former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke, who became the first African American popularly elected to the U.S. Senate (Mass., 1967-1979). Congresswoman Norton previously introduced a bill to award Brooke the Congressional Gold Medal. She gained bi-partisan support in the House while the late Sen. Ted Kennedy introduced the bill in the Senate. Brooke will be coming in person to receive the Gold Medal, two days before his 90th birthday. The ceremony will be held next Wednesday, Oct. 28, 11 a.m., in the Capitol Rotunda. President Obama is expected to award the Medal.
"The medal for Senator Brooke has double symbolic meaning for those of us who live in the District of Columbia," Norton said. "It will mark a marriage of historic events if we pass the D.C. House Voting Rights Act, as we intend, in the same year as we award the Congressional Gold Medal to Senator Edward W. Brooke, our history-making native son."
Norton conceived of the idea of a Congressional Gold Medal for Brooke as part of the struggle for the D.C. Voting Rights Act, which Brooke championed as a Senator. Although he served as Senator of Massachusetts, he worked vigilantly for his hometown throughout his service. He called his Republican and Democrat friends in the Senate seeking support for full representation for his native town.
"The Senator grew up in this city when there was no example of democracy, much less a public official to emulate," Norton said. "There was no representation in the House or Senate and no vote for President when Sen. Brooke lived in the District of Columbia, and attended its public schools and Howard University. The city's public and private accommodations were segregated and the District was governed by three appointed commissioners until the 1930s, when it achieved home rule and a delegate to the House.
Brooke was born, nurtured and raised in the District, attending Shaw Junior High School and Dunbar High School. He graduated from Howard University and Boston Law School, and he served in World War II as a captain in the U.S. Army. Brooke, a Republican, became the first African American state attorney general before becoming the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate since re-construction and the first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote.
"What an improbable recipient - a Republican from the then-Democratic and still Democratic state of Massachusetts where only two percent of the residents were African American," Norton said. "He overcame the barriers and went on to see his life for what he could make of it."
To view video of Norton's floor comments praising Brooke (and comments of other Members), click here.