Calling him a trailblazer and “a man who’s spent his life breaking barriers and bridging divides across this country,” President Obama this week awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to former Massachusetts Sen. Edward W. Brooke.

Mr. Brooke served as a Republican in the U.S. Senate from 1967 to 1979. He was the first black person to be elected to the Senate by popular vote, and was also the first black person to be elected state attorney general. He is a former longtime summer resident of Oak Bluffs.

The medal, which is Congress’s highest honor for distinguished achievements and contributions to society, was given to Mr. Brooke in a ceremony in the Capitol building in Washington on Wednesday.

“Ed’s journey to this day was, by any measure, an unlikely one,” Mr. Obama said. “Raised nearby in a neighborhood so fiercely segregated that black residents needed a note from a white person to pass through — at a time when so many doors of opportunity were closed to African Americans, others might have become angry or disillusioned. They might have concluded that no matter how hard they worked, their horizons would always be limited, so why bother? But not Ed Brooke.”

Mr. Brooke turned 90 on Monday. In a 2007 interview with the Gazette he said: “I never felt overt racism during my whole political career in Massachusetts. I wanted to prove that white voters will vote for qualified black candidates.”