Harold Ickes | |
|---|---|
 Ickes c. 1938 | |
| 32nd United States Secretary of the Interior | |
| In office March 4, 1933 – February 15, 1946 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman |
| Deputy | Oscar L. Chapman (acting) |
| Preceded by | Ray Lyman Wilbur |
| Succeeded by | Julius Krug |
| Administrator of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works | |
| In office July 8, 1933[1] – 1939[2] | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | position established[3] |
| Succeeded by | E. W. Clark[2] |
| High Commissioner to the Philippines | |
| In office October 12, 1942 – September 14, 1945 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | Francis Bowes Sayre Sr. |
| Succeeded by | Paul V. McNutt |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Harold LeClair Ickes March 15, 1874 Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | February 3, 1952 (aged 77) Washington D.C., U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4, including Harold |
| Education | University of Chicago (BA, LLB) |
Harold LeClair Ickes (/ˈɪkəs/ IK-əs; March 15, 1874 – February 3, 1952) was an American administrator, politician and lawyer. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for nearly 13 years from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold the office, and the second longest-serving Cabinet member in U.S. history after James Wilson. Ickes and Labor Secretary Frances Perkins were the only original members of the Roosevelt cabinet who remained in office for his entire presidency.
Ickes was responsible for implementing much of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal". He was in charge of the major relief program the Public Works Administration (PWA) and in charge of the federal government's environmental efforts.
In his day, he was considered a prominent liberal spokesman, a skillful orator and a noted supporter of many African-American causes, although he at times yielded to political expediency where state-level segregation was concerned. Before his national-level political career, in which he did remove segregation in areas of his direct control, he had been the president of the Chicago NAACP. Ickes had supported an American invasion of Francoist Spain before the Allied invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch.[4]
Robert C. Weaver, who in 1966 became the first African-American person to hold a cabinet position in the U.S., was in the "Black Kitchen Cabinet", Ickes' group of advisers on race relations.
Ickes was the father of Harold M. Ickes, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton.
- ^ The United States Government manual (1935)
- ^ a b Pederson, William D. (December 2009). The FDR Years. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9780816074600.
- ^ Executive Order 6174 on Public Works Administration
- ^ Tierney, Dominic (2007-07-02). FDR and the Spanish Civil War: Neutrality and Commitment in the Struggle that Divided America. Duke University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-8223-9062-6.