Remembering Andrew Brimmer, first Black on Federal Reserve's Board
ABOVE PHOTO: Dr. Andrew F. Brimmer, Harvard graduate and the only black member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, is shown in New York City in 1970.
(AP Photo)
By Mark Memmott
npr.com
A life well-worth noting has caught the attention of obituary writers:
— "Andrew F. Brimmer, a Louisiana sharecropper's son who was the first black member of the Federal Reserve Board and who led efforts to to reverse the country's balance-of-payments deficit, died on Sunday in Washington. He was 86."
(The New York Times)
— "In nominating Brimmer as a Fed governor on Feb. 26, 1966, [President] Johnson said, 'He is a man of wide professional experience and great personal integrity, a man of moderation whose brilliance is combined with a sense of fair play that I believe will enable him to serve with distinction.' The lead story in the next day's New York Times carried the headline, 'Johnson Appoints Negro Economist to Reserve Board.'"
(Bloomberg News)
— "Brimmer ... was the first chairman of the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority — better known as the Control Board. He led the body through its earliest and most contentious period, when it was caught between the Congress that created it in 1995 expecting swift and sweeping changes, and local officials led by Mayor Marion Barry who swore to resist on most every occasion."
(The Washington Post)
— "Brimmer was the longest-serving Tuskegee [University] board member when he announced his retirement in 2010."
(The Associated Press)
Brimmer, who was on the Fed from 1966 to 1974 and went on to have a long career as a private economist, corporate board director and member of various government commissions, was a guest on Tell Me More in 2009. He told host Michel Martin that:
"I learned to read and write very early because my father taught me how to read and write. So I learned to read, to write, and to figure. I was good in arithmetic and then in mathematics, but above all, I learned how to think logically.
"I had very good teachers. Even in Louisiana, I had two teachers who were very good. One taught me literally how to read and write. I applied it. My father taught me the basics. But my English teacher taught me - in fact, she's the one who got me interested in journalism. The other one, the principle of the school himself, he had done his masters' degree in history. And so I learned to look at the record.
"But from then on, step by step, I was forcing it. I always had a professor, somebody who was interested in me. And I was flattered. They thought I was bright - brighter than most and that I caught on more quickly. So from then, it was just discipline and training. In other words, you have to do dichotomies, and anyone who's pursuing a profession has to be able to get the person's hands dirty. And that's what I did."
+ Top Story
The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.
The woman’s voice was frantic and breathless, and she was choking back tears. “Help me. I’m Amanda Berry,” she told a 911 dispatcher. “I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m, I’m here, I’m free now.”
PepsiCo is once again learning the risks of celebrity partnerships after an ad for Mountain Dew was criticized for portraying racial stereotypes and making light of violence toward women. The soda and snack food company said it immediately pulled the 60-second spot after learning that people found it offensive.
Kiera Wilmot, 16, is by all known accounts an excellent student with impeccable behavior. She is also — now — a marked woman who will be tried as an adult for discharging a weapon on school grounds in what was allegedly a bungled science experiment," reports WSTB.com.
America's blacks voted at a higher rate than other minority groups in 2012 and by most measures surpassed the white turnout for the first time, reflecting a deeply polarized presidential election in which blacks strongly supported Barack Obama while many whites stayed home.
Three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested and accused Wednesday of trying to protect him by going into his dorm room and getting rid of a backpack filled with hollowed-out fireworks three days after the deadly attack.
Chris Kelly, half of the 1990s kid rap duo behind one of the decade's most memorable songs, "Jump," has died at an Atlanta hospital of an apparent drug overdose, authorities said. He was 34. Kelly, known as "Mac Daddy," and Chris Smith, known as "Daddy Mac," made up the rap group Kris Kross...
According to the data found in a new report, “The Buying Power of Black America,” now may be the most opportune time ever for businesses to develop a strategy for increasing their share of the Black American market.