Adams was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and attended public schools in Portland, Oregon. He attended the University of Washington at Seattle where, in 1948, he was elected president of the student government and was the first student to both serve in that post and receive the President's Medal of Excellence as the University's top scholar. He graduated in 1949 and was admitted to Harvard Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1952.
On November 4, 1986, Adams was elected to the U.S. Senate, narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Slade Gorton with 50.66% of the vote. Serving one term, he compiled a liberal record and was strongly supportive of his party's leadership.
In 1992 eight women made statements to The Seattle Times alleging that Adams had committed various acts of sexual misconduct, including sexual assault, molestation and rape. Multiple women said they were drugged after being served suspicious drinks and either assaulted or raped. In the exposé, an unnamed source said, "Adams had long been known by his staff and associates for aggressively kissing and handling women within his reach." A former Democratic Party activist alleged that in the early 1970s, when Adams was serving in the House of Representatives, he invited her to a Seattle bar, where he drugged her with what he called "Vitamin C", after she recalled suffering from a cold. The woman said Adams followed her home, pushed her onto a couch and raped her. Kari Tupper, the daughter of a longtime friend, accused Adams of drugging and assaulting her in 1987. A young woman in her thirties told The Washingtonian that while she was seated to Adams's right at a formal luncheon shortly after she had taken a new job on Capitol Hill, he slid his hand under her skirt to the upper part of her thigh, whereupon she tried to move her leg away from him. Failing that, she said she tried to remove his hand, but Adams dug his fingers into her skin.
Forced retirement
Adams denied the allegations in a press conference. But already under the spotlight due to previously aired allegations that he drugged and molested a young female aide in 1987, a highly publicized matter in which no charges were brought, Adams was forced to drop out of his reelection campaign. He never lost an election, and lived in Stevensville, Maryland, until his death of complications from Parkinson's disease.
In light of the 2017 #MeToo Movement, some see Adams's legacy as a powerful politician who systemically abused his power over young women as emblematic of Washington's culture of harassment. In 2020, an extensive PBS exposé concerning the workplace for women in the 1990s in Washington, D.C., described the climate of "sexual harassment and sexual entitlement existed in some offices in the Senate", driven by some male senators whose behavior was well known on Capitol Hill. There was a list of congressmen that young women were told to keep away from, which included Adams, Bob Packwood, Strom Thurmond, and Ted Kennedy.
Archives
1947-1998. 326.54 cubic feet.
circa 1920-1992. Brock Adams photograph collection.
1950-1994. 14.85 cubic feet including oversize material, 2 microfilm reels, 65 videocassettes, 1 audio disc, 11 reel to reel sound tapes plus 3 items.
