Nation: The Senate: An Individual Who Happens To Be a Negro

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In a sense, Ed Brooke has a 50-state constituency, a power base that no other Senator can claim. Not only is he in a position to show his race the way out of apartheid politics; he could also wield considerable influence in the selection of the G.O.P. presidential candidate in 1968—and beyond. Though he is cagey enough not to commit himself so soon, he leans toward Michigan's George Romney for '68. Since more Negroes could come to resent Romney's Mormon religion—which still has an archaic tenet that denies the "priesthood" to Negroes—Brooke would be a valuable ally in defending the Michigan Governor's liberal record on racial issues.

Already there has been talk of a Romney-Brooke ticket, which the Senator dismisses on the ground that he must first master his new job. Yet he is plainly on a path that goes beyond whatever personal summit he may reach. The achievements of Edward William Brooke will be as much a standard of a whole society's progress as they will be the measure of an individual who happens to be a Negro.