Edward Brooke, the first African-American United States senator elected by popular vote, dies at the age of 95 the Republican Party said.

Brooke was a Massachusetts Republican who was the first African-American man to be popularly elected to the United States senate.

In 1966, when he was first elected to the senate, Brooke was Massachusetts attorney general. This was during a time when the country was still rife with racist notions.

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While there were two other African-American senators before Brooke's election and after the Civil War, these senators were not picked by popular vote.

Until the early 20^th century, senators were picked by state legislature and not by democratic means.

Once in the senate, Brooke joined a small band of liberal Republicans who often opposed the Republican president, Richard Nixon.

One such issue that Brooke opposed was the build-up of troops in Vietnam. Later on, when the Watergate scandal came to light, Brooke was also one of the first Republican senators to call for Nixon to resign.

In 1972, he was re-elected by an almost 2-1 margin. However, by the time his third term came around in 1978, he was involved in a very public divorce proceeding.

His popularity and fame plummeted more when he was questioned about a sworn statement he made regarding a US $49,000 loan that he later admitted was simply a "misstatement and a mistake."

However, the occurrences were enough to sully his name and Brooke was defeated by Democrat Paul Tsongas by 55 to 41 percent.

Brooke was born in Washington D.C., on October 26, 1919. His father was an attorney for the Veterans administration.

At only 16-years old, he entered Howard University. He then fought in World War Two and earned a law degree from Boston College that allowed him to make (and lose) several political bids before being appointed chairman of the Boston Finance Commission.

He is the first African-American in the country to rise that high state office.

At his death in 2015, Brooke was the oldest living former Senator.

TagsEdward Brooke, senator, Elected by popular vote, Dies