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The Cabinet of the United States has had 23 African-American appointed officers serving as secretaries of one or more of the United States federal executive departments and eight African-Americans as Cabinet-level officials; with one of them appointed at the helm of the different departments. The vice president historically is also part of the Cabinet, ready to assume the Presidency should the need arise; to date, one African-American has been elected to the position. The U.S. Census Bureau defines African Americans as citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa.[1] The term is generally used for Americans with at least partial ancestry in any of the original peoples of sub-Saharan Africa. During the founding of the federal government, African Americans were consigned to a status of second-class citizenship or enslaved.[2] No African American ever held a Cabinet position before the Civil Rights Movement or the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and labor unions.[3]
Robert C. Weaver became the first African-American to hold a Cabinet position when he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.[4] Patricia Roberts Harris became the first Black woman to serve in the Cabinet when she was also appointed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1977. Harris became the first African-American to have held two different Cabinet positions when President Jimmy Carter subsequently appointed her Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1979. This position was renamed the Secretary of Health and Human Services in 1980.[5]
Colin Powell was appointed Secretary of State in 2001 and thus became the highest-ranking African American in the United States presidential line of succession in the country's history, up to that time. Condoleezza Rice became the highest-ranking black woman in line of succession when she was appointed to the same position in 2005. On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris replaced both Powell and Rice as the highest-ranking African American person in the line when she was inaugurated as Vice President.[6][7]
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has had the most African-American secretaries with six. The Department of Transportation has had three. The departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, State, and Veterans Affairs have had two. The departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, and Labor have had one. The defunct Department of Health, Education, and Welfare also had one African-American secretary. The departments of Interior and Treasury are the only existing Cabinet departments that have not had African-American secretaries yet. President Bill Clinton has appointed the most African Americans to the Cabinet during his tenure, with a total of seven.
Numerical order represents the seniority of the Officer in the United States presidential line of succession.[7]
| # | Name | Position | Year elected or appointed |
Party | Administration | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kamala Harris* | Vice President | 2021 | Democratic | Joe Biden | [6] |
Numerical order represents the seniority of the secretaries in the United States presidential line of succession.[7]
The departments are listed in order of their establishment or elevation to Cabinet (earliest first).
| # | Name | Position | Year appointed |
Party | Administration | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — [с] | Secretary of War | — [с] | — [c] | — [с] | — |
| 2 | — [d] | Secretary of the Navy | — [d] | — [d] | — [d] | — |
| 3 | — [e] | Postmaster General | — [e] | — [e] | — [e] | — |
| 4 | — [f] | Secretary of Commerce and Labor | — [f] | — [f] | — [f] | — |
| 5 | —[g] | Secretary of the Air Force | —[g] | —[g] | —[g] | — |
| 6 | —[h] | Secretary of the Army | —[h] | —[h] | —[h] | — |
| 7 | Patricia Roberts Harris* | Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare | 1979 | Democratic | Jimmy Carter | [5] |
The president may designate additional officials as members of the Cabinet. These positions have not always been in the Cabinet, so some African American officeholders may not be listed.
The following list includes African-Americans who have held cabinet-level positions other than the 15 executive departments. The table below is organized based on the time at which an African-American was appointed to a cabinet-level position.
