 | The Negro as an American |  |
INTRODUCTION
On January 13, 1966, President Johnson nominated Robert C. Weaver to be the first Secretary of the newly created Department of Housing and Urban Development — and also to be the first Negro ever to serve in the Cabinet. His subsequent confirmation by the Senate, with little or no opposition, represented another milestone: when the late President John F. Kennedy had proposed the creation of such a department four years earlier, the plan was defeated by a coalition of southern Democrats and some Republicans in the House of Representatives after it became known that Weaver was the President's choice.
The great-grandson of slaves, Weaver worked his way through an education culminating in a Harvard Ph.D. in Economics. His first government job was as an Advisor on Negro Affairs in the Interior Department during the early new deal years of the 1930's. Later he assumed various posts connected with Housing and Manpower, and during World War II was credited with opening up new job opportunities for Negroes in defense industries. When John F. Kennedy entered the White House in 1960 he named Weaver as administrator of the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency, a post which he held until his Cabinet appointment.
A veteran leader in the field of civil rights (he has been National Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), Weaver has made many speeches on themes similar to the one he delivered in Chicago on June 13, 1963, before the Symposium of Challenges to Democracy sponsored by the Fund for the Republic. The challenge which he outlined was the challenge to American Democracy to practice at home what it preaches to the world: namely, the values of equality, liberty, fraternity, and opportunity.
| The Negro as an American | |