November 8, 1966: For the 1st time since the Reconstruction Era, the 1st time since the 17th Amendment allowed voters to directly elect them, voters of a State elect a black person as their U.S. Senator.
Edward William Brooke III was born on October 26, 1919 in Washington, D.C. After earning a Bronze Star in World War II, he went to Boston for law school, and never left. Starting in 1950, running as a Republican -- black Americans still thought of it as the Party of Lincoln, and the Democrats as the party of segregation -- he ran for several offices in Massachusetts, but lost every time, until 1962, when he was elected his State's Attorney General, the 1st black person elected to that office in any State. (Most States elect their Attorneys General. My home State of New Jersey does not: There, the office is appointed by the Governor.)
In 1966, following the retirement of 4-term Senator Leverett Saltonstall, Ed Brooke ran for the Republican nomination to succeed him. Alan MacKay, a conservative activist, opposed Brooke, for refusing to endorse Senator Barry Goldwater's hard-right campaign for the Presidency 2 years earlier. But Goldwater understood which of them stood a better chance of winning the general election, and endorsed Brooke.
The Republicans gained 3 seats in that election, and 47 in the House, wiping out the huge Congressional advantage that President Lyndon B. Johnson had used to pass much of his Great Society agenda. Among the other new Senators the Republicans added were Howard Baker of Tennessee, joining John Tower of Texas as only the 2nd Republican Senator ever elected by popular vote in the South; and also Charles Percy of Illinois and Mark Hatfield of Oregon. Most of the Democrats elected were re-elected.
Civil rights had no bearing on the election: Less than 3 percent of Massachusetts voters were black, and his Democratic opponent, former Governor Endicott Peabody, had a good record on civil rights. Brooke won 60 percent of the vote, having united the State's Republicans, and peeled off enough Democrats, who were never especially enthusiastic about Peabody.
Brooke was among the authors of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, better known as the Fair Housing Act, and was a major supporter of Title IX, aiding women's participation in college sports. He was re-elected in 1972, and a year later, became the 1st Republican in either house of Congress to publicly suggest that President Richard Nixon resign over Watergate.
He lost his bid for a 3rd term in 1978, because he angered the State's Catholic majority due to his divorce and his pro-choice stance on abortion. He had also been investigated for improprieties in the divorce case, by Middlesex County Prosecutor John Kerry. He found insufficient evidence to charge Brooke with a crime, and dropped the case. The Democratic winner was Congressman Paul Tsongas, who chose not to run for re-election in 1984. Kerry then ran for the seat, and won it.
Brooke returned to his hometown of Washington, and to the practice of law. In 2000, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts named a courthouse after him. In 2004, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He died in 2015. At 95, he had been the oldest living former U.S. Senator.
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November 8, 1966, as are most modern American Election Days, was a Tuesday. Scottish celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was born.
Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the St. Louis Hawks, 135-121 at the old Madison Square Garden.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Detroit Pistons, 118-100 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls, 112-101 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago. This was the Bulls' 1st season of play. The next season, they moved to the Chicago Stadium.
* And the Baltimore Bullets beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 104-102 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at the Chicago Stadium.
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