Patricia Harris

Patricia Roberts Harris was born in May, 1924 in Mattoon, Illinois. Her father a Pullman car waiter, died when she was five years old. Her mother, a school teacher, moved Patricia and her younger brother to Chicago a few years later, where she grew up. Patricia always set high standards for herself. Her high school grades were so outstanding that she was offered six scholarships. She chose Howard University in Washington, D. C., and graduated summa cum laude.    

In the late 1940’s, she became involved in the civil rights movement and participated in the sit-ins and other demonstrations in Washington at places that refused to serve Blacks. It was during this time that she became a civil rights lobbyist on Capitol Hill for the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, of which she was an active member.    

Mrs. Harris returned to school in the 1950’s and graduated first in her Georgetown University Law class in 1960 when she was 36. She served as trial attorney for the Department of Justice for about a year and then served briefly as Associate Dean of Howard University’s School of Law. She was appointed by President Johnson to serve as Ambassador to Luxembourg from 1965 to 1967. After that, she became a partner in the Washington law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Kampleman. She joined the boards of major corporations such as IBM and Chase Manhattan Bank.

In 1977, she was appointed Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and in 1979, she became Secretary of the Department Health, Education and Welfare. These appointments helped Mrs. Harris become the first Black female in three categories: first Black woman to become an Ambassador, first Black woman Secretary of Health and Human Services and the first Black women to serve as secretary of HUD.

During her public life Mrs. Harris had the support of her husband, William Besley Harris, a lawyer and administrative law judge. They were married in 1955 and had no children.