To Robert Clifton Weaver
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: February 13, 1961
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views
Details
Sending a copy of his Nation article “Equality Now,” King congratulates Weaver on his appointment and confirmation to head the Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA).1 The appointment elevated Weaver to the highest federal post ever held by an African American.2 Weaver thanked King on 21 February 1961, saying that he found the article “most interesting.”
Dr. Robert K. Weaver, Administrator
Housing and Home Finance Agency
1626 K Street, N W.
Washington 25, D.C.
Dear Dr. Weaver:
Enclosed is a re-print of an article which I wrote over the Christmas holidays. I thought you may be interested in reading it. I was amazed to discover, after careful research, the powerful things that the President can do in the area of civil rights through Executive Orders. I hope that through the necessary pressure and persuasion we will be able to bring many of these possibilities into full realization under the new administration. I tried to bring some of these things out in the article.
May I take this way to congratulate you for being appointed and confirmed to serve in the highest post than any Negro has ever held in the federal government. I am convinced that Mr. Kennedy could not have found a better man for the job anywhere in the country. I know that we will see many new and creative developments in the area of housing under your leadership. If I can ever be of any assistance to you at any point, please feel free to call on me. I would like to stop in to chat with you a few minutes when I am in Washington in the very near future.
Sincerely yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Km
1. See King, “Equality Now,” 4 February 1961, pp. 139–150 in this volume. King also sent copies to Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, Thurgood Marshall, and Harris Wofford, whom he asked for suggestions “on how I can best get this to President Kennedy so that he will actually read it” (King to Young, King to Wilkins, King to Marshall, and King to Wofford, all dated 13 February 1961). Although Weaver faced opposition from members of the Senate Banking Currency Committee, who disagreed with his views on integration and believed he had associated with subversive organizations, he was confirmed on 8 February and was sworn in three days later. Robert Clifton Weaver (1907–1997) was born in Washington, D.C., and earned a B.S. (1929) and an M.A. (1931) in economics from Harvard University. After graduation, Weaver taught economics at North Carolina A&T College for one year, and in 1932 returned to Harvard to complete his Ph.D. (1934) in economics. In 1933 Weaver began his political career as advisor to Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. As a member of the Federal Council of Negro Affairs (also known as the “Black Cabinet”) in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, Weaver had by then become one of the most influential African Americans in government. In 1960 he chaired the board of directors of the NAACP. In 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Weaver to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a position he held until 1969. Weaver subsequently taught at Hunter College, Columbia Teachers’ College, and New York University.
2. Kennedy had also planned to nominate Weaver to head the new Department of Urban Affairs, which would have made Weaver the first African American cabinet member, but Congress voted against creating the department (Weaver, Interview by Daniel P. Moynihan, 6 May 1964; “Congress Shelves Kennedy Plan to Form Cabinet-Level Urban Affairs Department,” Wall Street Journal, 8 September 1961; see also King, Statement to Newsweek Magazine, 26 February 1962, p. 411 in this volume).
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954–1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.