This Day In History

(Weaver, left, with Lyndon Johnson at the White House for his swearing-in ceremony in 1966)

On this day in 1966, Robert C. Weaver was appointed as US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President Lyndon B Johnson. Weaver was the first African American to hold a cabinet level position in the United States. Johnson’s predecessor John F. Kennedy was the first to come up with the idea of a Department of Housing and Urban Development to deal with urban issues, but it was not approved until after his assassination, in 1965. Johnson deliberated for a few weeks, and then decided that Weaver was the most qualified, with a PhD in economics from Harvard University.

Weaver had served as one of the 45 African American members of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s informal ‘Black Cabinet’ in the 1930s. He advised the President on federal housing, and directed programs during the New Deal.

Weaver served in the role for the remainder of the Johnson administration, until 1968. He made history as the first African American member of the US cabinet, which marked a huge step on the way to equality and civil rights. Since Weaver, the US has seen African Americans as Justices of the Supreme Court, Secretary of State, and President of the United States. Weaver died July 17th 1997, at the age of 89.