Mr. Washington will now face a herculean task, a fact of which he is fully aware. His will be the problem of plowing new furrows, of reorganizing what has become a largely moribund form of government, and he must do it in the full glare of the publicity which necessarily attaches to the job of chief executive of the Nation's Capital. The fact that he is the first Negro to head a large American city will be, we believe, neither a help nor a hindrance.

Mr. Washington's proven concern for the best interests of all people seems to make it a good bet that he will manage to find his way thru the often conflicting cross-currents of our town's life. Some of his critics have contended that, altho he was President of the Washington Urban League, he is not an outstanding activist in the cause of civil rights. We believe that this is all to the good, because his marching orders will be to do the best he can for the city as a whole, not for any special part of it.

To be sure, the new District governmental setup gives the single commissionerhe's bound to be called mayor-a much more streamlined context in which to function than the old three-commissioner board enjoyed, but he'll still be hog-tied by Congress' ultimate control over the city's purse-strings.

And the nine council members won't be much help, because, altho they will be elected by the citizens of the District, they will be clothed with little more than advisory powers.

But, all in all, it's pretty exciting thing for all of us here to be headed in different direction after so many years. We wish Mr. Washington every success, and hope that everyone in town does what he can to help him on his torturous way.

[From the Washington Star, Sept. 7, 1967]

"MAYOR" WASHINGTON

President Johnson's selection of Walter E. Washington to become the District of Columbia's first "super" commissioner is a super choice. This appointment should encounter no trouble winning speedy Senate confirmation.

The qualifications for heading the District's newly reorganized government involve considerably more than administrative ability. They call for a fair degree of toughness, a great deal of balanced judgment, a flair for political innovation, thorough familiarity with the intricate problems of this unusual city and, most important of all, perhaps, a stature sufficient to command the entire community's respect. We know of no one, as the President emphasized he knows of no one, who could fill this demanding bill better, on all counts, than Walter Washington. It is very good, after his sojourn in the hinterlands of New York City, to welcome him back where he belongs.

The deputy commissioner, Thomas W. Fletcher, is an unknown quantity in the District-as indeed is the whole concept of the Number 2 job at this point. The President wisely settled on an experienced city manager, whose background at this level of municipal affairs ought to be beneficial. Fletcher's precise functions and responsibilities, however, should be left to his new boss. And it is quite possible that the new commissioner will want his top aide to serve as something other than the traditional city manager.

One of the commissioner's first chores, of course, will be to clarify the new city structure, as quickly as possible, in regard to the wealth of lower-level experienced talent already manning the District Building. Uncertainty over the identity of the new man, and confusion over the governmental structure, already have created an understandable but severe morale problem among District career employees. Their support and enthusiasm will be essential in getting the new government rolling.

Beyond everything else, however, Walter Washington's ability to perform is apt to depend upon the caliber of the appointments still to be made by the President to the nine-member city council. The new reorganization plan affords no assurances against confusion. Actually, it could lead to a greater dispersion of authority than existed before unless Mr. Johnson turns up a council willing to pull in harness with the commissioner—and able to view the District's problems in their entirety.

We hope, also, that the President will decide soon to abolish the office of presidential aide on National Capital affairs. The reorganization plan was sold to Congress largely on the advantages of concentrating responsibility and stature in a single man. This ideal will be realized, however, only if the new commissioner has direct, unencumbered access to the White House-if the commissioner is the President's man in fact as well as name.

Walter Washington's appointment, in other words, is a very encouraging start, but it is only a start. Whether the new system moves the District of Columbia perceptibly toward the "model city" Mr. Johnson says he seeks will depend to a great extent upon the President's continued interest, and the sympathetic assistance of Congress-just as always.

[From the Washington Post, Sept. 7, 1967]

WALTER WASHINGTON NAMED "MAYOR" IN NEW DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SETUP HUD AIDE IS SELECTED AS ASSISTANT-LITTLE OPPOSITION TO CONFIRMATION SEEN IN CONGRESS

(By Peter Milius)

President Johnson announced yesterday that he has chosen Walter E. Washington to be the District's new single commissioner.

In a brief appearance in the Cabinet Room, Mr. Johnson also said that he will nominate Thomas W. Fletcher, deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to serve as Washington's assistant.

Washington, 52, is chairman of the New York City Housing Authority. Senate confirmation would make him the first Negro "mayor" of a major American city. White House aides found no serious opposition to Washington in Congress in taking preliminary soundings.

EDUCATED HERE

A native of Georgia who grew up in Jamestown, N. Y., and has degrees from Howard University and its Law School, Washington spent 25 years with the National Capital Housing Authority, the public housing agency here.

He was NCHA's executive director when Mayor John V. Lindsay lured him to New York last November.

Fletcher, who is 43, was city manager of San Diego, Calif., from 1961 to 1966, and held high administrative posts there and in two other California cities for 10 years before that.

He was born in Oregon and graduated from the University of California et Berkeley; he served in the Housing Assistance Administration at HUD.

WIDE SUPPORT

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities and the International City Managers Association all enthusiastically endorsed him for the job here when consulted by White House aides over the last few weeks.

Washington told reporters after the announcement that he expects to spend a good deal of time "walking the streets" as Mayor Lindsay has in New York. Fletcher is expected to take care of administrative problems behind the scenes. The President said yesterday that he hopes to nominate the nine members of the City Council and round out the new city government "as soon as we can." Several well-placed sources said that the chairman of the Council, whom the President will designate, is likely to be white. There has been speculation that a majority of the Council will be Negro.

The President's reorganization plan establishing the new government stipulates that the Council be "broadly representative" of the city, now more than 60 percent Negro. Washington said the President has asked him for suggestions as to who should be named to the Council.

SENATE ACTION AWAITED

The new government, which supersedes the city's 93-year-old, three-member Board of Commissioners, will not take over until the Senate has confirmed the Commissioner, his deputy and six of the nine Councilmen. Mr. Johnson told reporters he hopses the Senate will act promptly when Congress reconvenes next week.

The Washington Post reported two weeks ago that Washington was the front-runner for the No. 1 job.

The President was miffed at the disclosure, and there was doubt until this week that he would go ahead with the appointment.

Leroy F. Aarons of The Washington Post New York Bureau reported that Mayor Lindsay, who has lost several top officials recently, tried to hold on to Washington. Washington said yesterday that he did not know until Tuesday when the announcement would be made.

The President said that, in an "intensive search" for a new Commissioner and assistant, "we have reviewed literally hundreds of names and records. Today our search has come to a happy end."

"We have found a man, Mr. Johnson continued, "who can provide the leadership, the vision, the understanding and the talent to move the Capital City forward, steadily and surely . . a strong and authentic voice for the people of the District.

"Walter Washington's adult life and his distinguished career have been spent in this city. He makes his home here He has been a fighter for effective government. . . He knows the people of this city-because he is one of them. Mr. Johnson also praised Fletcher as "an expert fiscal planner" and "an innovator . . . experienced, highly respected and eminently qualified for his new job. He is a man who can make government work for the good of the people it serves. "We believe, the President concluded, "that we have found the right men for the right jobs at the right time.'

The Commissioner-designate said at the White House that he has "a charge and a challenge from the President to make this city a showcase for the world. "I am very hopeful, he said, "that I will be able to serve equally all segments of this community."

Washington said he may visit the District Building while awaiting confirmation "to look at things first-hand," but will not open an office there in the interim. He noted that the District had a good record of racial stability and that that "gives us something to build on."

Asked where the priorities will be in his administration, he replied "certainly crime, and certainly the matter of employment and welfare."

These, he said, "are all problems we would want to study and analyze carefully and then develop priorities."

But he added quickly that he did not have in mind "long, drawn-out studies."

LAUDS "MODEL CITY" PLAN

Washington applauded the President's plan, announced last week, to turn the National Training School site into a "model community" for 25,000. He also said he thinks the reorganization plan gives him the authority he needs to be a strong executive.

The plan is designed to streamline the government by centralizing authority. The commissioner will run the government on a day-to-day basis. The Council will adopt ordinances, set the real estate and personal property tax rates and review the budget (which the Commissioner will prepare).

The Commissioner will have a veto over Council actions; the Council will be able to override a veto by a three-fourths vote. The Commissioner will also have the important new power to reorganize the government internally. Congress will continue to write the city's major laws, set most of its tax rates and have a final say over its budget.

Washington will get $28,500 a year in his new job. He was getting $35,000 a year in New York. Fletcher will get $26,000. Washington said he will resign from the New York job "very shortly.'

His wife, Bennetta Bullock Washington, had resigned as director of the Women's Centers of the Job Corps, to become professor of education and assistant to the president of City College of New York. She has now reversed her plans, and will stay with the Job Corps.

Mrs. Washington was formerly principal of Cardozo High School here. She and her husband have kept their house at 408 T st. nw.

There was widespread approval of the appointment in the city yesterday: Former District Democratic chieftain Joseph L. Rauh Jr. said "I can die happy now. I've seen this city go from iron-clad segregation to a Negro mayor-commissioner fully qualified for the job." Rauh was one of Washington's warmest supporters.

Commissioner Walter N. Tobriner, who reportedly will soon be given an ambassadorship, called the President's decision "admirable," noting that Washington is "familiar with the city's problems and is respected by both the white and Negro communities."

Commissioner John B. Duncan said he was "elated that Walter Washington has decided to return to this city."

Engineer Commissioner Robert E. Mathe saluted Washington as "a very fine public servant." Mathe added:

"He did a very fine job for the Housing Authority and I don't see why he shouldn't do an equally fine job as the District Commissioner."

Reached in Las Vegas, Senate District Committee Chairman Alan Bible (D-Nev.) said, "I have long held Water Washington in the highest regard. It is my hope that we will be able to hold confirmation hearings shortly after the Senate returns from the recess.'

District Democratic Chairman Tilford E. Dudley said that Washington "was the best qualified for the job . . . on the basis of merit, and we were for it.”

SUPPORT BY GOP

Dudley's Republican counterpart, Carl L. Shipley, said he and his party "will strongly support Washington," and said that Washington has his work cut out for him. The District, said Shipley, "is the most conspicuous failure of the President's Great Society.'

Shipley spoke out against Washington last week, complaining that his public housing background was "narrow" and predicting that he would be susceptible to "racial pressure."

The Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, a District civil rights leader mentioned as a likely candidate for a Council seat, called it "an excellent choice." He said 'm confident that Walter Washington will give this city the kind of leadership we need.

Sterling Tucker, local director of the Urban League, called Washington “the logical choice," and said "we can now prove to America the real ability of Negro leadership." He added that he hopes "the public will allow Washington a reasonable honeymoon, and won't expect him to work miracles."

Yesterday's announcement marked the end of a massive, month-long search that began Aug. 9, the day the reorganization plan moved through Congress. Washington himself said yesterday that he was one of "several being considered." One was Republican Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin of Baltimore, who said he turned down the job.

Cabinet officers, former governors, and a wide variety of other public figures cropped up in speculation.

Under the reorganization either the Commissioner or his assistant must be a District resident of three years' standing. Many organizations here plugged hard for appointment of a local man to the top job.

Washington came close to appointment as one of the three District Commissioners last year, before the reorganization plan was sent to Congress and before he took the New York job. A major stumbling block then was whether Washington, as a Negro, would be given charge of the police department or the health and welfare departments. He will now have charge of them all.

Washington will not sever all formal ties with public housing. One of his many duties as Commissioner will be to sit as chairman of the National Capital Housing Authority, the agency he administered as executive director when he left ten months ago.

FLETCHER CONFERS

Fletcher said last night that he considered the position of assistant commissioner "the highest achievement a man in my profession can make.'

He said although he had known of Washington and admired him, he had met him for the first time Sunday at the White House.

They spent yesterday together talking about primary things to be done, Fletcher said. Washington, he added, will return to New York for now, but they will be in touch with each other daily.

Fletcher said he was certain Washington would be "a strong and vigorous mayor" because of "the type of men he is" and the directions he received from the President. He said that he (Fletcher) would relieve Washington of a lot of the administrative detail and that he planned to get started immediately "getting acquainted with the District and its needs."

[From the Washington Star, Sept. 6, 1967]

CHAMPION OF D.C.'s POOR-NEW MAYOR AN OLD HAND

(By Betty James)

Walter Washington fought for broad-scale help for the poor long before there was a war on proverty.

Perhaps the source of the wide esteem in which he is held in the Nation's Capital is the depth and sincerity of his commitments.

Washington, named today as the District's new "mayor," is a crusader. But his style is all his own, and it is not the strident voice of the militant.

Good-natured pressure might be a better description of his method-the pressure of his own genial and impressive personality and the pressure of a good program which he felt made the case for public housing better than any argument could.

IN FIGHT FOR 20 YEARS

He fought for public housing here for some 20 years and discovered early, as he put it at public hearings:

Everybody's for public housing-but not next door."

Yet Washington managed to make his mark as a leader by swimming against this tide of sentiment during his entire professional career.

Washington was identified with public housing from his early days in the old Alley Dwelling Authority to his service 20 years later as director of the National Capital Housing Authority.

And although he was active in community affairs, it was in one field and virtually one job that he made his name. His community service included membership on the board of the United Planning Organization, the United Givers Fund and the Health and Welfare Council of the National Capital Area.

Perhaps it was the way he looked at public housing that put him into the role of civic leader.

HOME, NOT JUST HOUSES

He was building homes, not just houses, for people. He was willing to pioneer in new approaches, if this would meet the need.

Housing for the poor is more than a goal of idealists now-it is what Walter Washington always knew it was, a matter of life and death for poor people and for the rest of the community.

As commissioner, Washington would be faced with the challenge of solving the problems that produced a poor population in Washington so vast that the waiting list for public housing for many years has been 6,000 families.

Washington pioneered in social services in housing projects—indeed, he was criticized by the General Accounting Office for allowing social agencies to use space in his buildings rent free.

So great was his prestige as an enlightened public servant that when poverty war militants attacked bad conditions in some public housing-citing rats, rundown buildings and unfair management practices-the community was incredulous.

HE LISTENED, RESPONDED

Washington at first vigorously protested strong-arm tactics on the militants'

part.

But he had not forgotten, although he had joined the ranks of the establishment, that his constituents were the poor.

So he listened and responded to grievances. And meetings that bagan as bitter shouting matches ended up with angry tenants surging forth to shake his hand. Just a year ago he turned a meeting of citizens protesting delays in the public housing project on the old Sibley Hospital site into a rally by pledging to fight for them against production snags.

"You've got somebody who's going to fight with you. Let's go forward together. What about it? I pledge you that I'll be with you," Washington said.

This is the kind of pledge he would be expected to give the city as commissioner.