Up from Silence

Edward Brooke has never been the noisemaking sort of politician. Though the Massachusetts Republican is the Senate's only black member, he has declined close identification with black causes. Out of a combination of party loyalty and personal inclination, Brooke has not attacked the Administration on racial issues during the past 14 months.

Opposed President. Last week he could no longer contain himself. On a CBS radio show, Capitol Cloakroom, the Senator accused the Nixon Administration of making a "cold, calculated political decision" to give blacks short shrift. It is "a suburban as well as a Southern strategy," said Brooke, and he predicted that Nixon and his advisers would "continue along the road they took during the campaign." Recalling a favorite Nixon campaign slogan, he added: "President Nixon said he wanted to bring us together, but everything he has done so far appears to be designed to push us further apart."

Brooke had hoped that he would never have any occasion to be in opposition to the President. During Nixon's campaign, he accompanied the candidate in a role that some condemned as that of the "company Negro." Somewhat naively, he says that, though he was aware of Nixon's Southern-oriented statements during the campaign, he did not endorse them. He made no public protest because he thought that Nixon's pro-Southern attitude would change radically after election. "I had gathered this," he insisted, "from personal, private conversations" with Nixon.

Unheard Call. Then in succession came Administration policy on school-desegregation guidelines, voting rights, the nominations to the Supreme Court of Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell, and the departure from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare of Leon Panetta, who had been a determined fighter for desegregation of schools in the South. "And let's use the right word," said Brooke. "He was fired!"

Brooke had naturally assumed that Nixon would at least consult him about racial affairs. In 14 months the call from the White House never came, while Brooke was under increasingly heavy pressure from civil rights groups to speak out. Black militants added to Brooke's woes by dubbing him an "Uncle Tom." Now that Brooke has made the break, his example may well spur other prominent blacks into more vocal opposition.

Even in his hostile broadcast, however, Brooke had some kind words for Richard Nixon. As an early and uncompromising dove, he credited Nixon with turning the war around: "Instead of sending American boys over there, we are bringing them back." He added: "My hopes and expectations in the field of foreign policy have been rewarded; my hopes and expectations in equal opportunity and equal justice have been dashed."

At week's end the White House promised a statement soon. Brooded Brooke: "I'm hopeful that it will dampen the fires rather than add fuel. But unless it promises a reversal or a change in policy, I don't see much that a statement can do."

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