Entering Quietly

While Adam Clayton Powell postured and protested, the first Negro ever popularly elected to the U.S. Senate last week quietly took his seat in Congress. After a courtly reception from his new colleagues, Edward William Brooke III, the junior Senator from Massachusetts, walked outside and saw about 1,000 demonstrators waiting for Powell who was in the House being denied his seat. Cracked Brooke later: "I guess you get more attention when you're going out than when you're coming in." Not so, Senator. At a reception that afternoon, Brooke was overwhelmed by up to 5,000 well-wishers-Negroes and whites alike--who flocked to welcome him and wish him success.

The day before he was sworn in, by contrast, Brooke attracted little attention as he visited the Senate gymnasium, played tennis with Oregon's junior Senator-elect Mark Hatfield, enjoyed a sauna bath and massage, and used the Senate barbershop and dining room. Then, on the "big day," as he called it, Republican Brooke, 47, was escorted by Massachusetts' Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy down the multicolored carpet of the Senate chamber to stand before Vice President Hubert Humphrey for the swearing-in ceremony. Brooke modestly shook hands with dozens of Senators, including segregationists, met fellow-Republican Freshmen Clifford Hansen of Wyoming, Charles Percy of Illinois and Howard Baker of Tennessee, and took his seat just across the aisle from Georgia Patriarch Richard Russell, leader of the Southern Democrats, who greeted him cordially.

He was "Senator" or "Mister Brooke" to his colleagues the first day; the second, he was "Ed." Several times he was the only Senator on the floor other than the presiding officer and the Senator speaking. "I want to learn," he said. "That's why I was there."

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