1966 January 18

Robert C. Weaver Sworn in as First African-American Cabinet Member

 

Appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by President Lyndon Johnson on this day, Robert C. Weaver was the first African-American to serve in a Cabinet-level position.

Weaver served as the first Secretary of HUD from 1966 to 1968. He began his public service career under President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a member of FDR’s informal “Black Cabinet” in the 1930s.

In 2000, the headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development was named the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building in his honor.

Read Weaver’s biography: Wendell Pritchett, Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City: The Life and Times of an Urban Reformer (2008)

Read about Weaver at the National Archives:
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/spring/weaver.html

Read Weaver’s early book: Robert C. Weaver, Negro Labor: A National Problem (1946)

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Topics: Black History, Johnson, Lyndon B., Roosevelt, Franklin D. / Index: , / No Comments

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