(b. Washington, DC, 29 Dec. 1907; d. 1997) US; black reformer Educated at Harvard University (where he obtained a Ph.D. in economics), Weaver became an aide to Harold Ickes and played an increasingly important role advising on policy relating to black Americans, serving in the Interior Department 1933 – 7 and as special assistant to the administrator of the United States Housing Authority 1937 – 40. He spent time teaching and then from 1954 to 1959 became involved in the administration of housing policy in New York City as Deputy State Housing Commissioner and as vice-president of the City Housing and Redevelopment Board.

When John Kennedy nominated Weaver to be administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, the nomination had to overcome the objections of southern Democrats who were opposed to civil rights. Weaver's nomination succeeded but the Kennedy administration lost the battle to upgrade the agency to a Cabinet department not least because congressional conservatives thought that Weaver, a key figure in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, would be nominated to the post. Under Lyndon Johnson a new department of Housing and Urban Development was created and Weaver was nominated to be its first secretary. He thus became in 1966 the first black member of an American Cabinet, a post in which he served until 1969. An able administrator and a committed reformer, Weaver advocated a number of new initatives including the demonstration cities programme. At the end of the Johnson administration, Weaver went into academic administration as president of Baruch College.

A Dictionary of Political Biography. Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.