What do you think?
Rate this book
Bridging the Divide: My Life
President Lyndon Johnson never understood it. Neither did President Richard Nixon. How could a black man, a Republican no less, be elected to the United States Senate from liberal, Democratic Massachusetts-a state with an African American population of only 2 percent? The mystery of Senator Edward Brooke's meteoric rise from Boston lawyer to Massachusetts attorney general to the first popularly elected African American U.S. senator with some of the highest favorable ratings of any Massachusetts politician confounded many of the best political minds of the day. After winning a name for himself as the first black man to be elected a state's attorney general, as a crime fighter, and as the organizer of the Boston Strangler Task Force, this articulate and charismatic man burst on the national scene in 1966 when he ran for the Senate. In two terms in the Senate during some of the most racially tormented years of the twentieth century, Brooke, through tact, personality, charm, and determination, became a highly regarded member of "the most exclusive club in the world." The only African American senator ever to be elected to a second term, Brooke established a reputation for independent thinking and challenged the powerbrokers and presidents of the day in defense of the poor and disenfranchised. In this autobiography, Brooke details the challenges that confronted African American men of his generation and reveals his desire to be measured not as a black man in a white society but as an individual in a multiracial society. Chided by some in the white community as being "too black to be white" and in the black community as "too white to be black," Brooke sought only to represent the people of Massachusetts and the national interest. His story encompasses the turbulent post-World War II years, from the gains of the civil rights movement, through the riotous 1960s, to the dark days of Watergate, with stories of his relationships with the Kennedys, Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, and future senator Hillary Clinton. Brooke also speaks candidly of his personal struggles, including his bitter divorce from his first wife and, most recently, his fight against cancer. A dramatic, compelling, and inspirational account, Brooke's life story demonstrates the triumph of the human spirit, offering lessons about politics, life, reconciliation, and love.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
352 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 2006
45 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 18, 2020
It was a historic moment when Edward W. Brooke (1919-2015) in 1967 took his oath of office as a
United States Senator. More historic because this man was elected as a Republican from a state that
only had a two percent black population at the time.
It was a return of sorts for the Washington, DC born Brooke who first set foot in Massachusetts when
he was sent to Fort Devens after enlisting in the wake of Pearl Harbor. His black regiment saw action
in Italy. Brooke also got himself a wife over in Italy, a GI bride and they had two daughters from their marriage.
Brooke graduated Howard University and Boston University Law School and he and wife Remigna settled in Massachusetts. He got active in GOP politics and ran some local races and eventually headed the Boston Tax Commission, an appointed position that Republican governor John A. Volpe
gave him in 1961. His work uncovering waste and corruption there led to his nomination as State
Attorney General of Massachusetts.
The million dollar question is why the GOP? As Brooke explains it, the Massachusetts Republican
party was an open and affirming group. The Democrats as he saw them were an Irish exclusive
party, not even too welcoming to other white ethnics let alone blacks. He describes the races he
had especially against future Boston mayor Kevin White for Attorney General with the subtle and
not so subtle racist tactics used.
As Attorney General he was most famous for taking the Boston Strangler case from local law enforcement and assigning a task force. Said publicity from that earned him the US Senate nomination and election in 1966 the first popularly elected black man to go to the US Senate.
As you can gather Brooke was in the moderate to liberal wing of his party with folks like Jacob Javits, Clifford Case, Chuck Percy, etc. He was opposed to the Vietnam War.
A messy divorce that went public and led to all kinds of investigations into his public and private
life cost him re-election to a third term to Democrat Paul Tsongas. None of the charges made
ever bore any kind of results.
The book was written in 2004 and Brooke as do many wished for the days when as a black man he
could find a home in the GOP and the parties weren't so rigidly ideological. A lot of us do.
It's a story uniquely American and uniquely his own.
United States Senator. More historic because this man was elected as a Republican from a state that
only had a two percent black population at the time.
It was a return of sorts for the Washington, DC born Brooke who first set foot in Massachusetts when
he was sent to Fort Devens after enlisting in the wake of Pearl Harbor. His black regiment saw action
in Italy. Brooke also got himself a wife over in Italy, a GI bride and they had two daughters from their marriage.
Brooke graduated Howard University and Boston University Law School and he and wife Remigna settled in Massachusetts. He got active in GOP politics and ran some local races and eventually headed the Boston Tax Commission, an appointed position that Republican governor John A. Volpe
gave him in 1961. His work uncovering waste and corruption there led to his nomination as State
Attorney General of Massachusetts.
The million dollar question is why the GOP? As Brooke explains it, the Massachusetts Republican
party was an open and affirming group. The Democrats as he saw them were an Irish exclusive
party, not even too welcoming to other white ethnics let alone blacks. He describes the races he
had especially against future Boston mayor Kevin White for Attorney General with the subtle and
not so subtle racist tactics used.
As Attorney General he was most famous for taking the Boston Strangler case from local law enforcement and assigning a task force. Said publicity from that earned him the US Senate nomination and election in 1966 the first popularly elected black man to go to the US Senate.
As you can gather Brooke was in the moderate to liberal wing of his party with folks like Jacob Javits, Clifford Case, Chuck Percy, etc. He was opposed to the Vietnam War.
A messy divorce that went public and led to all kinds of investigations into his public and private
life cost him re-election to a third term to Democrat Paul Tsongas. None of the charges made
ever bore any kind of results.
The book was written in 2004 and Brooke as do many wished for the days when as a black man he
could find a home in the GOP and the parties weren't so rigidly ideological. A lot of us do.
It's a story uniquely American and uniquely his own.
October 18, 2015
I picked this book up to learn more about the namesake of the school where I work. Ed Brooke was first black senator popularly elected in this country. I went in with misguided assumptions, but found a pragmatic, centrist (liberal?), moral man's story of fighting for civil rights and engaging all the great issues of his time. His story from the suburbs of DC to the shores of Italy, streets of Roxbury and eventually the United States capital was truly fascinating. His take on some of US history's most intriguing and controversial figures (read: Nixon, King, Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, the Kennedys, Elizabeth Taylor, et al) was fascinating; and his revealing of his personal family struggles showed his bravery.
November 20, 2011
Such a great man and a definite model for what todays Republican candidates should be modeling themselves after.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews