Massachusetts Republican Edward Brooke, the first black U.S. senator elected by popular vote, dies at the age of 95. Vanessa Johnston reports.
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Edward Brooke, the first African-American to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, died Saturday.
In 2009, he was honored by U.S. President Barack Obama at the Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Brooke, a Massachusetts Republican, came to Capitol Hill in 1966, at a time when the country was gripped by racial unrest.
There, he joined a small band of liberal Republicans who often went against the wishes of the Republican president, Richard Nixon.
After being defeated in the 1978 election, Brooke returned to private law practice.
The World War Two veteran was 95 when he died.