Harris, Patricia, 1924-1985

Patricia Roberts Harris (May 31, 1924 – March 23, 1985) was an American academic, government official, and diplomat. The first African American woman to serve in the United States Cabinet, she previously served as United States Ambassador to Luxembourg under President Lyndon B. Johnson, and was the first African-American woman to represent the United States as an ambassador. She was also the first Black American woman to be dean of a law school, and the first to sit on a Fortune 500 company's board of directors.

Born in Mattoon, Illinois and raised in Chicago, Illinois, she attended public schools in Chicago. After earning scholarships to five different colleges, Roberts selected Howard University, from which she graduated, summa cum laude. She did graduate work in industrial relations at the University of Chicago from 1946 to 1949. In order to be better involved in civil rights work, she transferred to American University in 1949. While studying in Chicago, Roberts was a program director for the Young Women’s Christian Association. While at American University, she concurrently worked as the Assistant Director of the American Council on Human Rights, beginning in 1949 and staying until 1953. After marrying in 1955, Harris was beginning to pursue a career in education, but saw limited opportunity because of segregation. Her husband encouraged her to go to law school, and she received her J.D. from the George Washington University National Law Center in 1960, ranking number one out of a class of ninety-four students. Harris passed the bar exam the same year and began working as an attorney in the appeals and research section of the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

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