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Weaver, Robert Clifton
Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
The Robert Clifton Weaver Papers primarily concern Weaver's professional activities and development from his entry into government service in 1933 to 1961. Material prior to 1933 relates to the Weaver family.
The collection encompasses correspondence, writings, speeches, scrapbooks, and printed material relating to Weaver's career in urban affairs. The correspondence describes policy development and program implementation ingreat detail and elaborate on his theories of urban development and the effects of economic legislation on minority groups. Correspondents include Mary McLeod Bethune, Ralph Bunche, John P. Davis, John Kenneth Galbraith, William H. Hastie, T. Arnold Hill, Frank Horne,Davis McEntire, Henry Lee Moon, Alonzo Moron, Constance Baker Motley, Lawrence D. Reddick, Walter White, and Carter G. Woodson. There is printed material on such topics as urban development and slum clearance by Weaver and others. Included is a diary, 1869, kept by his grandfather, Robert Tanner Freeman, the first African American to earn a degree at Harvard Dental School.
Weaver's writings and speeches include drafts of his "The Negro Ghetto" (1948), scholarly articles, commencement addresses and official reports, as well as reprints of hispublished articles (1933-1970). The collection also contains printed material consisting of programs, transcripts, housing reports, memoranda, bulletins and news clippings on such topics as housing, urban development and slum clearance. The photographs, scrapbooks and albums (1925-1970) concern events in which Weaver participated, such as official visits to housing projects and other venues developed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the United States and Puerto Rico. The creation of HUD is also documented.
Robert Clifton Weaver was an economist, public administrator, educatorand author. Born in Washington, D.C., he was educated at Harvard University, where he received three degrees, including the Ph.D. in 1934. He was successively advisor to the Secretary of the Interior (1933-1937), special assistant with the U.S. Housing Commission (1937-1940), and, during World War II he held several offices concerned with mobilizing black labor. During the 1930's through 1940 Weaver was a core member ofPresident Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet."
An economist, Weaver believed the key to racial equalitywas economic opportunity, particularly in the areas of jobs and housing. He focusedhis career and writings in these areas, publishing two books, "Negro Labor, A National Problem" (1946) and "The Negro Ghetto" (1948). From 1949 to 1955 Weaver directed the fellowship program of the John Hay Whitney Foundation, after which he became rent commissioner in New York State (1955-1959), and as such a memberof the Governor's Cabinet. He was active in the civil rights movement and served for a year as national chairman of the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(1959-1960).
In 1961 President John F. Kennedy appointed Weaver to head the federal Housing and Home Financing Agency. And, in 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson named Weaver the secretary of newly created Department of Housingand Urban Development (HUD), thus giving him the distinction of being the first African American to serve in the Cabinet. In this role he developed many innovative solutions to urban redevelopment.
Weaver left the government in 1969 to become president of Bernard Baruch College of the City University of New York, and from 1970-1978 was professor of urban affairs atHunter College. His other publications include "The Urban Complex" (1964) and "Dilemmas of Urban America" (1965) regarding urban problems and urban renewal. He died in 1997 in New York City.
Shadows (1826). NYPL Art and Architecture Collection.
One of 700,000 pictures in the NYPL Digital Gallery
