Patricia Roberts Harris

Harris, Patricia Roberts (1924–85), U.S. public official, first African-American woman to be a U.S. ambassador, to hold a cabinet post, and to serve as a director of a U.S. corporation. Active in the Democratic Party and the civil rights movement, she was appointed ambassador to Luxembourg by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. She was dean of Howard University School of Law 1969–70 and was later a director of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). Under President Jimmy Carter she was secretary of housing and urban development (1977–79) and secretary of health, education, and welfare (1979–81).