THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Patricia Roberts Harris
May 31, 1924 – March 23, 1985
Attorney, professor of law and first female dean of the Howard University law school. First African-American woman to hold a U.S. ambassadorship (Luxembourg). First African American woman to serve in the United States Cabinet, and the first to enter the line of succession to the Presidency. Harris served under President Jimmy Carter as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (which was renamed the Secretary of Health and Human Services during her tenure)
Photo 1. Patricia Roberts Harris with Meet the Press host, Lawrence E. Spivak [Photo by Reni Newsphotos, Inc. Photo source: Courtesy Library of Congress, 1971]. Photo 2. With President Jimmy Carter, 1977.
More About Patricia:
- Video of Patricia Harris appearing before the Senate Committee to be appointed as US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the new Cabinet, Nov. 1, 1977
- The Patricia Roberts Harris Public Affairs Fellowship to Howard University
- National Women’s Hall of Fame, honored 2003
- 33 cent Patricia Roberts Harris stamp issued in Washington, DC, on January 27, 2000 and designed by Richard Sheaff
- ALTA (American Land Title Association) interview with Patricia Roberts Harris, pages 13 – 15
- Oral history transcript, Patricia Roberts Harris, interview 1 (I), 5/19/1969, by Stephen Goodell, LBJ Library Oral Histories, LBJ Presidential Library
- National Museum of African American History & Culture
- National Museum of American Diplomacy
- Patricia Roberts Harris Papers, Howard University