Hon. Senator BIBLE: SEPTEMBER 18, 1967. I have lived in Public Housing for the past 10 years. I have known Mr. Walter Washington for a very short period, but I have found him to be a very good man. I would like to recommend him for the D.C. Commissioner. Bless all of you and thanks. GWENDOLYN CARTER. SEPTEMBER 19, 1967. Hon. Senator BIBLE. I wish to recommend Mr. Walter Washington for the position of D.C. Commissioner. As a tenant of Public Housing, I have known Mr. Washington to be a very fine man. I definitely feel that he will be an asset to the entire community. Sincerely, CHRISTIBELE FRAZIL. SEPTEMBER 19, 1967. DEAR SENATOR BIBLE: I recommend Mr. Walter Washington for D.C. commissioner because of his interest and loyalty to the people in public housing. Please give this man great consideration. Sincerely, M. P. WALKER. SEPTEMBER 18, 1967. Hon. Senator BIBLE. I wish to recommend Mr. Walter Washington for the position of D.C. Commissioner. He is a fine man and will do much to improve the conditions in Washington, D.C. NETTIE M. TILLMAN. WASHINGTON, D.C., September 19, 1967. SENATOR BIBLE: I am wholeheartedly in favor of Mr. Walter Washington being seated in the office and the duties which he is so capable of doing. No one can feel that he is not a deserving person, and I do trust that Mr. Walter Washington will be an asset to all of us. I want to see him and also to hear him in his new job. Accept him please. Thank you. MAMIE WASHINGTON. WASHINGTON, D.C. DEAR SENATOR BIBLE: Thank you kindly for appointing Mr. Walter E. Washington as Commissioner of the District of Columbia. This I feel, among others, was a fine choice. With Mr. Washington in office, the citizens of the District can again have peace of mind concerning the crisis that threaten our city just months ago. So again I thank you. Mrs. MAMIE BROOKS. Hon. Senator BIBLE: SEPTEMBER 18, 1967. I think Mr. Walter Washington will make a good mayor for the District of Columbia. Hon. Senator BIBLE. JOHN WALL. SEPTEMBER 18, 1967. DEAR SIR: This is to request recognition for Mr. Walter Washington for the position of commissioner of the D.C. area. Yours truly ROLAND SANFORD. Senator ALAN BIBLE, Chairman, Senate District Committee, NEW YORK, N. Y., September 20, 1967. The riots and rebellions in our cities in recent years have made us all acutely aware that we are in the midst of a national urban crisis. The decay of our cities is the greatest problem faced by our Nation today and has received all too little attention. But hope for effective programs cannot and will not be completely lost so long as there are cities with intelligent, bold, and imaginative leadership willing to grapple with urban problems. The Nation's Capital has become a city of hope because of the nomination of Walter Washington to become District Commissioner. Mr. Washington is a man whose qualifications 'experience' and skill are equal to the great challenge of the job he faces and I recommend without reservation that the Senate act to confirm President Johnson's nomination of his appointment as Commissioner of the District of Columbia. Senator ALAN BIBLE, KENNETH B. CLARK, President, Metropolitan Applied Research Center. Chairman, Senate District Committee, Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. WASHINGTON, D.C., September 20, 1967. The appointment of Walter Washington restores and sustains our confidence and hopes in the Nation's Capital as a model city. The 25 national organizations and 3,850,000 women who comprise the National Council of Negro Women take pride in the appointment because of what we know it can mean to the city in which our national headquarters was established by the distinguished Mary McLeod Bethune. Through the years Walter Washington has demonstrated his ability so aptly described by the newspapers as the pressure of a genial and impressive personality and the pressure of a good program. In the height of the war against poverty we have come to have increased appreciation for the distinguished leadership team that Mr. and Mrs. Washington represent. We commend President Johnson for his wise selection of Walter Washington as the man who can provide the leadership, the vision, the understanding and the talent to move the Capital City forward steadily and surely. Senator ALAN BIBLE, Chairman, Senate District Committee, DOROTHY I. HEIGHT, WASHINGTON, D.C., September 20, 1967. I wish to register support for Walter Washington's confirmation as Commissioner. A gentleman and able administrator and an ardent supporter of the good life for all people. MARIAN V. COOMBS. THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Hon. ALAN BIBLE, DEAR SENATOR BIBLE: I am authorized to convey to you and your Committee the wholehearted support of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia in favor of the nomination of Mr. Walter E. Washington as Commissioner of the District of Columbia and to urge the Senate to advise and consent to his appointment. We are of the opinion that Mr. Washington is an excellent and outstanding choice for the office by reason of his attributes and accomplishments. 84-529-67- -10 The Association also desires to lend its full support to the new Government of the District of Columbia and to do all it can to make it an outstanding success and to that end will make available to the new Commissioner the services of its various committees. I shall appreciate it if this letter is made part of the record of the hearings that are being held today. Sincerely, JOHN E. POWELL, President. STATEMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FEDERATION OF CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS, INC., ON THE APPOINTMENT OF THE HONORABLE WALTER E. WASHINGTON FOR COMMISSIONER OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA The Honorable Chairman Bible and distinguished members of the Senate District Committee. District of Columbia Federation of Civic Associations, Inc.-composed of forty-six constituent civic organizations throughout the District of Columbia—desires that its name be included in the records along with so many other organizations and individuals offering testimony supporting the appointment of The Honorable Walter E. Washington for Commissioner of the District of Columbia We of the Federation of Civic Associations of the District of Columbia have known the Honorable Mr. Washington for a number of years and have supported legislations and programs proposed by him during his tenure as Director of Public Housing in the Nation's Capital. We have also given support to other programs and efforts with which he was associated or as a direct proponent. The District of Columbia Federation of Civic Associations, Inc. has every reason to believe that The Honorable Mr. Washington is adequately equipped and amply qualified to fulfill the requirements and to perform the duties of Commissioner for the District of Columbia. There is no doubt that Mr. Washington will faithfully and intelligently execute his responsibilities as Commissioner of the District in the best tradition of a dedicated servant, but that he will not allow himself to lose the common touch between the local citizenry and the office of the government to which he is appointed. The Federation of Civic Associations wholeheartedly endorses the appointment of The Honorable Mr. Walter E. Washington for Commissioner of the District of Columbia and pledge to him the full support of our organization and its affiliate member organizations in his effort and desire to make the Nation's Capital City a better place for better living for all persons, without regard to race, color, or religion. We further urge that the Senate will give Mr. Washington's appointment its complete and fullest endorsement and immediate approval of him for the office of Commissioner of the District of Columbia, as is the desire of the President of the United States and the citizens of this community. This immediate action by the Senate will not only give renewed assurance to people of this great city, but it will also demonstrate to the peoples of the free world the true meaning of democracy in action. Respectfully submitted, NELSON C. ROOTS, President. PEPSI-COLA BOTTLING CO. OF WASHINGTON, D.C., INC., Hon. ALAN BIBLE, Committee on the District of Columbia, DEAR SENATOR BIBLE: In recent years it has been my pleasure and honor to take part in civic and social activities with Walter Washington. On the basis of his outstanding record and the man himself, I sincerely urge that this individual's confirmation as Commissioner of the District of Columbia be unanimous. Sincerely, C. WILLIAM MARTIN, Jr. THE UNDER SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, Hon. ALAN BIBLE, Chairman, Senate District Committee, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: I am glad to submit for the record my evaluation of the capabilities and qualities of Mr. Thomas W. Fletcher as they may pertain to the post of Assistant Commissioner of the District of Columbia for which the President has nominated him. I regret that previous commitments of long standing prevent me from giving this testimony in person. Although I have known Mr. Fletcher personally for only a few months, I directed the evaluation of his candidacy for appointment as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing Assistance in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. At the close of our search for a Deputy Assistant Secretary for this program, we made extensive examinations of the careers of some seventeen men and women distinguished in local government. Mr. Fletcher emerged as the outstanding candidate from an outstanding group. I have been in close association with him since his appointment to HUD. He rapidly mastered a complex area and displayed exceptional qualities of leadership in introducing major innovations in the housing assistance program. He also displayed the qualities of human concern and compassion that identify him as an administrator whose chief concern is the well being of the people he serves. We at HUD will miss his talents and abilities greatly. We do, however, recognize the urgent need for an effective beginning of the new government of the District of Columbia, and I am happy to recommend Mr. Fletcher as Assistant Commissioner to serve with Mr. Washington. With every good wish, ROBERT C. WOOD. NATIONAL CAPITAL HOUSING AUTHORITY, Hon. ALAN BIBLE, Chairman, District of Columbia Committee, U.S. Senate, DEAR SENATOR BIBLE: I am writing in behalf of Mr. Thomas W. Fletcher who has been nominated by the President of the United States for the position of Deputy Commissioner of the District of Columbia. Although I have known Mr. Fletcher only since he arrived in Washington, I have been impressed with his organizational ability and administrative talent and feel confident that he will fulfill his duties to the immense benefit of the District of Columbia and its citizens. I urge his early confirmation. Sincerely, EDWARD ARONOV, [From the Washington Post, Sept. 6, 1967] OUR NEW GOVERNMENT President Johnson has selected a strong team to inaugurate the reorganized government of the District of Columbia. Walter Washington has the kind of experience, the general credentials and the sort of personality that any community might look for in a chief municipal executive. He has political gifts and faculties of a high order. He has had much experience in dealing with the most difficult problems of the city. He has had a long Washington residence that has brought him into contact with people of all races and classes in the city. His deputy, Thomas W. Fletcher, is not well known to the citizens of Washington, but he is well trained for his task, his education is ideally suited to his work, and his professional life has been devoted to problems of exactly the sort that he will deal with in the District. The new Commissioner and his deputy have their work cut out for them. The new District government they will head is a vast improvement on the ramshackle structure with which their predecessors have had to deal. But it is not an ideal municipal system because of the absence of elected officials and because of the presence of Congress. The first defect deprives the government of the broad base of support that is the foundation of every self-governing society. The second exposes it to the intervention of members of Congress who are not accountable to any local groups or answerable to any community forces. Some of them, one regrets to say, are not even motivated by a desire to see the city prosper. Others either are ignorant of or indifferent to the considerations that ought to restrain legislative authority from minute day-to-day intervention in executive functions. Given these handicaps, the new administration will be confronted with many difficulties. It will face all of the formidable problems of the typical large American city in this century, and its own special problems besides. That it can cope with them successfully is by no means a foregone conclusion. The change from the antiquated government of the past gives rise to a certain amount of optimism and hope. If this optimism is to be justified and this hope fulfilled, it will be because the community as a whole responds to the opportunity to work more effectively under new rules and new men. [From the New York Times, Sept. 7, 1967] WASHINGTON'S FIRST 'MAYOR' The appointment by President Johnson of Walter E. Washington as first "Mayor" of Washington does honor to both men The choice is based on Mr. Washington's outstanding qualifications, but it took courage for the President to make it in the aftermath of strife in the cities when Congressional troglodytes talk of any advances by Negroes as "rewarding the rioters." For a time it appeared that the President's familiar allergy to premature press disclosures might cost Mr. Washington his new assignment, but happily Mr. Johnson put pique aside. There is no question that Mr. Washington brings first-class credentials to his new post as head of local government in the nation's capital. He started out as a Civil Service junior housing assistant in 1941 when Washington's public housing, spurred by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, was known as the Alley Dwelling Authority. He and his wife are parallel success stories; while he served as head of the National Capital Housing Authority, she became a high school principal and director of the women's Job Corps. In reversing the route that carried him from the District of Columbia to New York, Mr. Washington remains on the front lines of the most crucial work for a civil servant today: rebuilding our cities. He will have a formidable assignment. Whenever anti-American publications abroad want to needle Washington, they run photographs of slum buildings in the shadow of the gleaming Capitol. Unfortunately, the pictures are not retouched. The residents of these dwellings include many Negroes who make up more than 60 percent of the city's population. When Mr. Washington left his job as director of the housing agency last November, The Washington Evening Star called it "Lindsay's greatest coup, and surely for this city its greatest loss." It is now the District of Columbia's turn to rejoice. The first Commissioner is subject to Senate approval. On his qualifications— and that is what really matters-confirmation should come quickly. This is a step toward making the capital of the United States a better place to live and work in— and to tell the world that achievement wears no color in this country. [From the Washington Daily News, Sept. 7, 1967] WELCOME ABOARD, MR. MAYOR! President Johnson's decision to appoint Walter B. Washington to be "mayor" of the District of Columbia under the city's reorganization plan comes as no great surprise, and it will be greeted with considerable applause from most quarters. |