Edward W. Brooke of Newton and Oak Bluffs became the first Negro ever elected to the United States Senate by a popular vote, on Tuesday when he defeated former Governor Endicott Peabody for the seat vacated by Senator Leverett Saltonstall.

For Mr. Brooke, who is now serving as the state’s attorney general, his election to the Senate is the fulfillment of an energetic political career. He has been attracting national attention for some time, but now he will move onto the national scene.

He said, in a television interview in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, however, that he and his family would continue to maintain their home in Newton, where his daughters will remain in school “And, of course, we will never give up Martha’s Vineyard. We love it there.”