Patricia Roberts(Harris Patricia Roberts)

1924 - Born in Mattoon, Illinois on the 31st of May.

1945 - Harris graduated summa cum laude from Howard University.

1949-1953 - She did postgraduate work at the University of Chicago and at American University, she worked as Assistant Director of the American Council on Human Rights.

1955 - She was elected Phi Beta Kappa. There she met William Beasley Harris, a member of the Howard law faculty, they were married.

1960 - Roberts later graduated from the George Washington University National Law Center. 

1961 - Harris worked briefly for the U.S. Department of Justice before returning.

1963 - She was elevated to a full professorship.

         - President John F. Kennedy appointed her co-chairman of the National Women's Committee for Civil Rights.

1964, Patricia Harris was elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from the District of Columbia.

1965-1967 - President Johnson appointed her Ambassador to Luxembourg.

1969 - She was named Dean of Howard University's School of Law.

1972 - She joined one of Washington, D.C.'s most prestigious law firms.

1977 - Harris was appointed to the cabinet of President Jimmy Carter upon his election.

1979 - She served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

         - She served as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

         - Department of Education Organization Act was signed into law on the 17th of October, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare was divided into the separate departments of Health and Human Services and Education.

1981 - Harris then served as the first Secretary of Health and Human Services until Carter left office.

1982 - She unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Washington, D.C.

1985 - Died on the 23rd of March.

• "Senator, I am one of them. You do not seem to understand who I am. I am a black woman, the daughter of a dining-car worker ... If my life has any meaning at all, it is that those who start out as outcasts can wind up as being part of the system."