Delta Sigma Theta’s First National Executive Director, Patricia Roberts Harris, Was Also the First Black Woman to Serve as a U.S. Ambassador, Lead an American Law School, and Serve in a Presidential Cabinet

Did you know that one member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. became the sorority’s first national executive director, the first Black woman U.S. ambassador, the first Black woman to lead an American law school, and the first Black woman to serve in a U.S. presidential Cabinet? Her name was Patricia Roberts Harris, and her lifetime of firsts is tied to the sorority she served.

Patricia Roberts Harris was born on May 31, 1924, in Mattoon, Illinois. She graduated summa cum laude from Howard University, the historically Black institution in Washington, D.C., in 1945, with a degree in political science and economics. As a student, she took part in one of the first sit-ins at a whites-only cafeteria in Washington. She later earned her law degree from George Washington University in 1960, graduating first in her class.

Harris was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the organization founded at Howard University in 1913 by twenty-two collegiate women dedicated to scholarship and public service. According to the American Bar Association, she served as the first executive director of the sorority’s national headquarters from 1953 to 1959, helping build the administrative foundation of one of the largest Black women’s organizations in the country.

The leadership she showed as a soror carried into a public career full of barriers broken. In 1965 she was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a U.S. ambassador. In 1969 she was named dean of Howard University School of Law, the first Black woman to lead an American law school.

Then, in 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed her Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. As the Center for American Women and Politics notes, she became the first Black woman to serve in a U.S. presidential Cabinet. She later served as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, making her the first woman to hold two different Cabinet positions. She died on March 23, 1985.

Harris’s legacy continues to be honored. In 2000, the U.S. Postal Service featured her on a Black Heritage stamp, national recognition of her contributions to American law, education, and government. At Howard University, the Patricia Roberts Harris Public Affairs Fellowship, established through a bequest she left to the school, continues to prepare students for careers in public and international affairs.

From the national headquarters of Delta Sigma Theta to the President’s Cabinet, Patricia Roberts Harris turned a life of service into a record of firsts that opened doors for those who came after her. This is a fact.