Page 155 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

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recorded. “It would be a great step forward for the nation and the Negro
and our international image, and would do so much to give many people
a lift who need a lift now. I’m sure it could give a real sense of dignity and
self-respect to millions of Negroes. . . .”
President Johnson responded, “I’m going to concentrate all of the exec-
utive power I can to get that done,” telling King that it was his intention
to create a new cabinet-level department that dealt with housing and urban
issues and revealing that he already had the perfect person in mind to run
it: Housing and Home Finance Agency Administrator Bob Weaver. “I’m
going to shove as strong as I can to get the biggest department—housing,
urban affairs, city, transportation—everything that comes in that depart-
ment that involves the urban areas of America, in one department,”
Johnson told King. “And then if I can get that done, without having to
commit one way or the other, my hope would be that I could put the man
in there, and probably it would be Weaver because I think we have a more
or less moral obligation to a fellow who’s done a good job and he hasn’t dis-
appointed anybody.”
“This is very encouraging,” King replied. “This would be another great
step toward the Great Society.”
“It’s like you being assistant pastor of your church for ten years with
the understanding of your deacons that you would take over . . .,” the pres-
ident continued. “And finally the good day comes and they say, ‘Well, you
get back and sit at the second table.’ I just don’t feel like saying that to
Weaver. Weaver’s not my man—I didn’t bring him in. He’s a Kennedy man.
But I just think it would be a pretty revolutionary feeling about him.”
One year and three days after that telephone call, Robert C. Weaver
became the first African American to serve in a cabinet post when President
Johnson appointed him secretary of the newly created Department of Hous-
ing and Urban Development. Eight months later, Jane Cahill Pfeiffer broke
through yet another barrier when she became the country’s first female
White House Fellow. However, despite the major advances in race and gen-
der relations in Washington that year, it wasn’t all smooth sailing; unfortu-
nately, discrimination was still alive and well in the nation’s capital.

40 Telephone Conversation between President Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr., January
15, 1965, 12:06 pm, Citation #6736, Recordings of Telephone Conversations, Lyndon
B. Johnson Presidential Library.

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