Patricia Roberts Harris

Patricia Harris in her swearing-in ceremony (in 1965) to be the U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg.

Patricia Roberts Harris (May 31, 1924March 23, 1985) served as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the last United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and the first United States Secretary of Health and Human Services in the administration of President Jimmy Carter. She was the first African American woman to serve as a United States Ambassador, representing the U.S. in Luxembourg under President Lyndon B. Johnson, and the first to enter the line of succession to the Presidency.


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