Patricia Roberts Harris, A Trailblazing Alumna and Pioneer in Public Service

Patricia Roberts Harris opened many doors. Her legacy is allowing Howard students to walk through them.

Tamara E. Holmes
Mar 20, 2024 4 minutes

The program also invites notable speakers with careers in public service to share their experiences with the fellows. Among the past speakers are former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice; Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton; and NASA astronaut Mae C. Jemison.

Howard alumna Patricia Roberts Harris (B.A. ’45) never let a glass ceiling hold her back.

Widely known for being the first African American woman to serve as on a presidential cabinet, Roberts Harris was President Jimmy Carter’s U.S. Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the 1970s and later Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services she accomplished other firsts in her illustrious career.

Prior to serving in the cabinet, President Lyndon Johnson appointed her the ambassador to Luxembourg in 1965, making Roberts Harris the first African American woman to be an ambassador. She was also a pioneer in business, becoming the first African American woman to serve on a corporate board at IBM.

Then, there were her notable accomplishments in academia: Roberts Harris was the first African American to be a dean of a U.S. law school when she took on the role at Howard in 1969.

However, she also broke new ground at Howard by leaving a legacy – the Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship for Public and International Affairs – which makes it possible for Howard students to follow in her footsteps in living a life of public service.

We want to commemorate Patricia Roberts Harris and all her accomplishments in higher education,”

Herstory Today: The Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship for Public and International Affairs

The fellowship was established as a result of a bequest by Roberts Harris’ estate upon her death. Administered through the Ralph J. Bunch International Affairs Center, the fellowship today has both an international and domestic track, and provides student recipients with a year of mentorship, internship and professional development workshops.

“One of the barriers to diversity in government service, public service and international affairs is that a lot of the internships were unpaid. So, you have students of color – in particular Howard students – that often just could not simply afford to work for free,” says Jerome M. Haynesworth II (B.S. ’02), program manager for the fellowship program.

“Roberts Harris wanted students to be able to have the freedom to pursue such opportunities without any financial constraints holding them back. Through the fellowship, “students can apply for funding to basically subsidize those experiences,” Haynesworth says.

In 2022, the fellowship program received $200,000 in funding from Carnegie Corporation in New York for expansion. Through the program, fellows have traveled domestically for internships as well as internationally to such places as Spain, South Africa, Jordan, and Chile.

The program also invites notable speakers with careers in public service to share their experiences with the fellows. Among the past speakers are former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice; Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton; and NASA astronaut Mae C. Jemison.

Howard Celebrates Roberts Harris Centennial Birthday

This year, the program continues to go strong with 16 students in the 2024 cohort. The year 2024 also marks a personal milestone for Roberts Harris as May 31 would have been her 100th birthday. Roberts Harris died of breast cancer on March 23, 1985, at the age of 60.

To commemorate her life and legacy, the Ralph J. Bunche Center will host a film screening about her along with a Q&A discussion. They also are planning to host a centennial event in November as part of their annual lecture series. Roberts Harris’ legacy continues to pave the way for Howard students to follow in her footsteps, not just in public service but in other disciplines as well.

Since no glass ceiling could contain her, “we want to commemorate Patricia Roberts Harris and all her accomplishments in higher education, business, public affairs, public service and international affairs,” Haynesworth says.