The Black Cabinet was an unofficial group of African-American advisors to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. African-American federal employees in the executive branch formed an unofficial Federal Council of Negro Affairs to try to influence federal policy on race issues. In his twelve years as president, Roosevelt did not appoint or nominate a single African American to be either a secretary or undersecretary in his presidential cabinet, but by mid-1935, there were 45 African Americans working in federal executive departments and New Deal agencies. Roosevelt gave no formal recognition to the group, although First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged it. Although many have ascribed the term to Mary McLeod Bethune, African American newspapers had earlier used it to describe key black advisors of Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.[2]
- ^ Scurlock Studio, "President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet" taken in March 1938" online at Smithsonian Institution
- ^ New Deal (Roosevelt) Archived 2014-06-06 at the Wayback Machine
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