The descriptive phrase “public servant” is not often in use anymore, let alone in fashion, but in the best sense of the phrase it applies to the man who became the first ever African-American to hold a presidential cabinet post. This week (Jan. 18) in 1966, Robert Clifton Weaver was sworn in as then-President Lyndon Johnson’s choice to head the newly created Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
HUD was a key component in Johnson’s “Great Society” program, whose goals were — broadly speaking — to promote racial equality, enhance urban renewal, eradicate poverty and build a more just society through programs administered by both the federal government and state governments using federal grants. Today, of course, the legacy of Johnson’s attempts at such “social engineering” is a mixed bag at best, but that is no fault of Robert Weaver’s, whose leadership of HUD was distinguished and — truly an accomplishment — scandal free.
Weaver was born in Washington, D.C., went to Dunbar High School and then on to Harvard University, where he distinguished himself in the field of economics, earning his B.A., M.A and Ph.D. After Harvard, Weaver worked in various government posts, including as an advisor to the secretary of the Interior, as special assistant with the Housing Authority, and as an assistant with the National Defense Advisory Commission. He continued his government service during World War II, working to mobilize African-American labor to fill vacancies caused by the enlistment of white workers into the army.
After the war, Weaver served as the rent commissioner for New York before returning to Washington to serve as President Kennedy’s administer of the Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA). When Lyndon Johnson assumed the presidency upon Kennedy’s death, he tabbed Weaver to lead his newly created HUD agency.
As HUD secretary Weaver shifted the agency’s focus from that of HHFA. Instead of concentrating solely on building development, Weaver emphasized community development, especially programs designed to strengthen individuals and give them a sense of “ownership” in their inner-city communities. Alas, Weaver only had two years to put his ideas into place. When Johnson chose not to run for re-election in 1968, Weaver left government to become president of Baruch University.
Weaver’s combination of economic expertise and first-hand experience with the travails of inner-city life for African-Americans also made him a committed civil rights worker — he once served as head of the NAACP — and he wrote several books on the plight of the urban poor, including The Negro Ghetto and Dilemmas of Urban America.
Weaver died in 1997, and in honor of his life as a dedicated and proud public servant, in 2000 the HUD building in Washington, D.C., was named after him.
