Page 156 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

NOT EVERY BATTLE IS THE END OF THE WAR

“Weaver was the coordinator of the Model Cities program recently
enacted into law to collectively channel federal, state, and local resources
for urban renewal of slums in sixty-three inner cities. He asked me to fig-
ure out a place where all the task force members could have an offsite
meeting, a place President Lyndon Johnson could come to,” Pfeiffer
explained. “I told him I knew just the place, a country club in Bethesda,
Maryland, that IBM often used for conferences. I knew a high-level per-
son at the club, so I called him up and he said we couldn’t come. And I
said, ‘What do you mean we can’t come? Gosh, we’ve got the cabinet sec-
retaries and even the president of the United States,’ and he said, ‘Weaver
can’t come here.’ They didn’t allow blacks at that club! Now, can you imag-
ine having to go back to Weaver and tell him that?”
Pfeiffer informed the club representative that she would see to it that
IBM boycotted their facility until they rescinded their discriminatory prac-
tices, and she got a colleague at IBM to promise that the company would
back her up. She decided not to tell Weaver that he was unwelcome at the
club; she would book another facility for the Model Cities meeting quietly
and move on. But when Weaver asked her point blank why she had
changed venues, she broke down and told him the sad truth: The club’s
doors were closed to him because of the color of his skin.
“He did not brood over it, and that was the end of that. He was such a
dear man—he never said anything more about it,” Pfeiffer said. “That’s what
41
Weaver could always do. He could rise above the slights.” It was a good les-
son for a young woman trying to function in a male-dominated workplace.
Pfeiffer learned that becoming angry or resentful just makes you bitter; it’s
a virus that can enter your pores without warning and spread silently, infect-
ing your entire being. If you allow that to happen, you contaminate every-
one around you with a negative attitude, especially your subordinates, who
quickly will lose respect for you and make it difficult for you to lead.
Although pressing ahead, rising above the slights, and not becoming bitter
is a good advice for those facing discrimination, leaders should draw inspi-
ration from Martin Luther King, Jr., who gave his life trying to bring the

41 In a profile Robert Weaver said: “The lash of prejudice is not the overt lash; it’s the sub-
tle lash of feeling yourself up against an iron block of prejudice that is the most cutting.”
A. H. Haskin, “Washington Gets the Weaver Treatment,” New York Times Magazine, May
14, 1961, p. SM16.

141