Edward William Brooke Papers

A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Audrey Walker with the assistance of Allyson Jackson, Patrick Kerwin, Sherralyn McCoy, and Thelma Queen

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2009

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2009

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms009033

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Personal Names

Organizations

Subjects

Locations

Occupations

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Access and Restrictions:

Security Classified Documents:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Edward William Brooke, lawyer, attorney general of Massachusetts, and U.S. senator, were given to the Library of Congress by Brooke between 1978 and 1991.

The collection was processed in 1998. The finding aid was revised in 2009.

Phonograph, video, and audio recordings have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division of the Library where they are identified as a part of these papers.

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Edward William Brooke in these papers and in other collections in the custody of the Library of Congress is reserved. Consult reference staff in the Manuscript Division for further information.

Restrictions apply governing the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult reference staff in the Manuscript Division for information concerning these restrictions. In addition, many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.

Government regulations control the use of security classified items in this collection. Manuscript Division staff can furnish information concerning access to and use of classified material.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Edward William Brooke Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Edward William Brooke (1919- ) span the years 1956-1988, primarily covering the period of his political career as attorney general of Massachusetts, 1963-1966, and United States senator, 1967-1978. Included is a small file relating to his unsuccessful campaign for Massachusetts secretary of state in 1960, a few of his early speeches, and one file from his post-senatorial legal career. The collection consists of correspondence, office files, campaign files, speeches and writings, legislative files, subject files, press and public relations files, printed matter, and an extensive array of photographs.

The Attorney General Office Files covering the years 1962-1966 consist of general correspondence, chiefly carbons of outgoing letters, and office files that include a few files of his assistant attorneys general, particularly Roger Woodworth, Donald Whitehead, and Edward Martin. The office files, composed of correspondence, memoranda, legal papers, and reports, are arranged by division. Extraneous papers and files relating to the daily operation of the office have been placed in an office file miscellany that also includes personnel records, press releases, files of assistants and advisers, and scheduling files of the attorney general. Some of Brooke's accomplishments as attorney general reflected in the papers are the successful prosecution of corruption in Massachusetts, abatement of conflict of interest charges, enactment of consumer protection laws, and changes in eminent domain procedures. The records of the Criminal Division contain several folders on the investigation of the series of stranglings occurring in Boston between June 1962 and January 1964 known popularly as the Boston Strangler Case.

The Senatorial Papers are divided into several subseries. The administrative files relate to the procedural operation of the senator's offices, although the files for his local offices are small. The Boston office files mainly cover the years 1975-1978 after the transfer of all casework from Washington to Boston, and the Springfield office file is limited to one folder. An important component of the administrative files is the series of memoranda prepared by Brooke's aides and assistants on a variety of subjects needing the senator's attention. Often Brooke's responses or directions to staff are noted on these memoranda, which are arranged chronologically and record the evolution of the senator's legislative program, his stance on local and national issues, political activities, and his staff's decisions regarding constituent matters. In some instances duplicate memoranda are filed in the appropriate subject or legislative files. Reports by staff members on their areas of responsibility constitute another interesting feature of the administrative files. These reports, in association with the mail count statistics, reflect the staff's heavy workload and highlight the problems of time, space, and personnel with which the offices had to contend. They also include assessments and reviews of assignments designed to improve the efficiency of the offices. The Brooke Papers do not include appointment calendars, but notes and correspondence attached to the senator's daily schedules coupled with the appointment correspondence document most of his activities.

The correspondence subseries of the Senatorial Papers constitutes about seventy percent of the Brooke Papers. Generally, individual casework files, invitations declined, requests for autographs, photographs, publications and flags, routine greetings, congratulatory and thank-you letters, recommendations for lower-level positions, employment applications, and applications to military academies were determined to have little research value and were not retained. The remaining correspondence files are divided into six categories. The most voluminous of these is the master file, an annual alphabetical file containing carbons of replies to all legislative and casework letters written by the Brooke offices from 1967 to November 1976.

From 21 November 1976 to the end of his service, all correspondence was entered into the computer-based Correspondence Management System used by the Senate. Correspondence was maintained in a chronological sequence based on the calendar from day one to three hundred sixty-five. The Correspondence Management System allowed the senator's staff to individualize responses to letters by choosing from selections of form paragraphs and to prepare multiple replies when needed. By entering correspondents' names in an index and indicating subject and administrative designations for each letter, Brooke's staff was able to extract and manipulate information regarding each reply in a variety of useful ways. The last entry in the system, created on 27 November 1978, ends with letters written on 25 October. Letters written subsequent to that date are filed at the end of the Correspondence Management System files. In addition to the discarded letters described above, this series was further culled to remove duplicate form responses and more than one copy of group work letters. This file is preceded by two computer printout name report indexes that list alphabetically all responses prepared by the staff through July 1978. The four-digit numbers listed on the folders represent the last digit of the year and the numerical day of the year on which the correspondence was entered into the system. The Correspondence Management System file forms the second largest segment of correspondence in the Brooke Papers.

A third category of letters, the legislative correspondence files, is a random sampling by the archivist representing about twenty-percent of the letters received from constituents and out-of-state correspondents expressing their views on national and local issues, matters of personal concern, or current events. The correspondence includes both incoming letters and responses of the senator's office. It is arranged chronologically by year and alphabetically therein by subject. The subject designations reflect the original organization of the files that varied from year to year based on the senator's committee assignments, standing committees of the Senate, work habits of the legislative aide maintaining the files, and other changes in office responsibilities or organization. In some years the letters were arranged in broad categories similar to senatorial committees with subcategories indicated at the top of letters. In other years they were filed by specific subjects. Although cross references have been included to facilitate location of related files, the researcher is advised to check a variety of subject headings in order to identify correspondence on topics of interest. For the reader interested in Brooke's positions, this task can be eased by consulting the form letter responses found in the indexes to the automatic ("robo") typewritten and computer-produced letters in the administrative files subseries (Containers 60-63). The volume of mail on a particular subject when used in conjunction with the mail count analyses found in the administrative files subseries (Container 64) provides insight into the interests and concerns of the populace during Brooke's terms in the Senate.

The projects file represents a special category of casework correspondence composed of letters from state and local government officials, corporations, institutions, community organizations, and individual entrepreneurs asking the senator's office to intercede in their quests for assistance or federal grants. Only those files manifesting evidence of the senator's involvement were retained as determined by notes and memoranda in the files or comments in the correspondence, such as references to meetings or conversations, planned trips to locations by the senator, or discussions with staff or others about the project.

Two smaller correspondence subseries include general and miscellaneous correspondence. The general correspondence, an artificial file created from letters extracted from discarded legislative and Correspondence Management System files and unfiled or unidentified boxes of correspondence and papers, is composed of letters from the senator's personal acquaintances, his colleagues in the Congress, heads of government departments and agencies, and other notable individuals. The miscellaneous correspondence, a term used by Brooke's office to identify a collection of letters dealing with nonlegislative matters that did not fit into the established correspondence files, includes correspondence generally considered personal. This correspondence is arranged chronologically, but only a few files were located for the years 1967-1970 and none for 1973. The miscellaneous correspondence of the Boston office from 1975 to 1978 is placed at the end.

Brooke's record in the Senate can also be found in the legislative, subject, and press and public relations files of the Senatorial Papers series as well as in the Speeches and Writings File series. The legislative file is divided into two parts. The first is composed of all bills, amendments, and resolutions that Brooke introduced or cosponsored in the Senate. It includes draft and final copies of bills, memoranda by staff pertaining to contents and strategy for managing the bills through the Senate, letters from colleagues, and some background material. The second part of the legislative file forms the historical record of Brooke's terms in the Senate. It consists of briefing books on his positions over several years, legislative summaries of his activities, and analyses and assessments of his voting record by his staff and various public interest groups.

The subject file is composed of material extracted from unidentified files and the files of various aides, many of which were fragmentary and represent material selectively retained by Brooke's staff. Most of the subjects relate to legislative areas of responsibility and cover topics of special importance to Massachusetts and the New England region. Numerous files pertain to the Massachusetts economy, especially the problems of unemployment and jobs for youth, closing of military bases, cutbacks in defense contracts, fishing rights, and the energy crises following the Arab oil boycott, notably energy conservation measures and the cost and availability of fuel oil. The contents of the subject files also focus on national issues, such as the bicentennial of the American Revolution, civil rights (including abortion, equal rights, and desegregation of schools), defense and foreign policy, fair trade laws, the New York City financial crisis, nominations of Clement H. Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court, the war in Vietnam, and the Watergate scandal. Brooke was particularly concerned with domestic issues affecting the quality of life for economically deprived citizens. Poverty and care for the elderly were issues enunciated early in his campaigns. As a senator, he introduced the Brooke Amendments and other legislation designed to make housing affordable for tenants of public housing and for young families, and he proposed legislation to increase social security pensions and expand health care for the elderly. The subject file also includes material relating to the fact-finding trips that Brooke took to Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Haiti, and Europe.

Brooke's stand on legislative issues is further clarified and developed in his articles and letters to the editor, his numerous speeches to organizations and institutions, statements on the floor of the Senate, and testimony before various congressional committees. His views were publicized through press releases, weekly radio reports to constituents, interviews with the press, and guest appearances on radio and television programs.

When Brooke was sworn in on 10 January 1967 as the junior senator from Massachusetts and the first popularly elected black to serve in the United States Senate, it was the culmination of a political career that had begun with his campaign for the state legislature representing the twelfth ward in 1950. There are no papers in the collection relating to his two campaigns for the state legislature and only a small file pertaining to his candidacy for secretary of state of Massachusetts in 1960, but his campaigns for attorney general of Massachusetts and United States senator are well documented in the Campaign Materials series. This series includes briefing books on issues, correspondence files of Brooke's election committees, information on strategy planning, organizational plans and structure, opinion polls, press releases, and Brooke's schedules on the campaign trail. It is complemented by a small Political File series, the nucleus of which was primarily the files of Brooke's assistant and adviser, Roger Woodworth. The Political File includes papers relating to politically sensitive issues or situations in Massachusetts, patronage, and Brooke's relationship with Republican Party officials. After Brooke's rise to political prominence, there was continued speculation concerning his joining the national ticket of the Republican Party as either the vice presidential or presidential nominee. References to his possible candidacy are found in several folders in this series and in various letters throughout the collection. Additionally interesting in the Political File are the folders relating to Brooke's support of Nelson Rockefeller for president of the United States in 1968 and his subsequent show of party loyalty by campaigning on behalf of Richard Nixon. This series also includes material relating to Brooke's service on two committees of the Republican Party, the Rule 29b Committee formed after the 1972 National Republican Convention to study the delegate selection process, convention rules, and the interrelationship of local, state, and national Republican Party organization; and the Screening Committee of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee that interviewed candidates for the state committee leadership positions. The papers in the Political File provide a glimpse of behind-the-scenes maneuvering for power and influence within the Republican Party.

After Brooke was defeated in the November 1978 congressional election by Paul Tsongas, he returned to private law practice. Most of the papers in the Legal File series relate to National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) cases, with the bulk of the records pertaining to the suit that the NAACP brought against its former subsidiary organization, the Legal Defense and Educational Fund, regarding the use of the NAACP name. Brooke served as one of the NAACP's attorneys in the case. Smaller files in this series relate to lobbying interests of the National Coal Consumers Alliance and to the effect of Ronald Reagan's 1985 tax reform proposals on the real estate market.

The extensive collection of photographs in the Miscellany series visually chronicles Brooke's political career. In addition to campaign photographs, there are images of Brooke with Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter, with members of Congress and fellow Republicans, with visitors to his office, and with foreign diplomats.

Correspondents in the Brooke Papers include Howard H. Baker, John S. Bottomly, Jimmy Carter, Silvio O. Conte, Clarence Elam, Gerald R. Ford, Albert A. Gammal, Mark O. Hatfield, Hubert H. Humphrey, Jacob K. Javits, Lyndon B. Johnson, Kivie Kaplan, Edward T. Martin, Richard M. Nixon, Harold and Glendora M. Putnam, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Francis W. Sargent, Hugh D. Scott, Josiah A. Spaulding, John A. Volpe, Roger Woodworth, and Charlotte Yaffee.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in nine series:

• Attorney General Office Files, 1962-1966
• Senatorial Papers, 1965-1978
• Speeches and Writings File, 1961-1980
• Campaign Materials, 1960-1978
• Political File, 1963-1978
• Legal File, 1979-1988
• Miscellany, 1956-1988
• Oversize, 1966-1973
• Classified, 1974

Description of Series

Container List