Harris, Patricia Roberts (1924-1985), served as secretary of housing and urban development under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979. In 1979, Carter appointed her secretary of health, education, and welfare. Later that year, Congress established a separate Department of Education, and Harris’s department became the Department of Health and Human Services. She headed the agency until 1981. Harris was the first African American woman to hold a Cabinet post in the United States.
Patricia Harris was born on May 31, 1924, in Mattoon, Illinois. She graduated from Howard University and earned a law degree at George Washington University. Harris joined the faculty of the Howard University School of Law in 1961.
Harris became the dean of Howard University in 1969 but left in 1970 and joined a Washington, D.C., law firm as a partner. In 1971, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) appointed her a director. She was the first African American woman to serve as a director of a major United States company. Harris died on March 23, 1985.
