Photo: Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty

Clifford Alexander, Jr., foreground, greets an attendee after a dialogue featuring poet Elizabeth Alexander, upper left background, September, 24, 2010 in Washington, DC.

Clifford Leopold Alexander Jr., the first African American named Secretary of the United States Army, died this weekend at 88.

Alexander succumbed to heart failure at his home in New York City on Sunday, his daughter, Elizabeth, told theNew York Times.

President Jimmy Carter appointed Alexander — born in Harlem, New York, in 1933 — to the U.S. Army secretary role in 1977. His selection marked the first time a Black civilian became the head of any U.S. military branch, theWashington Postreported.

In 1955, Alexander graduated with Honors from Harvard University, where he became the institution’s first Black student body president.

AP/Shutterstock

Clifford L Alexander Jr. poses in his Washington office after resigning as chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington on . Alexander, who said he will stay as a commission member to fill out the remaining three years of his term, criticized the present administration’s attitudes on enforcing equal job opportunities

“Cliff saw his role as secretary of the Army as a key extension of the civil rights movement, and he inaugurated and enforced policies that were spectacularly effective in achieving his goal,” Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. told theTimes.

“The fact that the United States military is, perhaps, the most integrated institution in our society can be traced to the foresight of Clifford Alexander,” he added.

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Alexander graduated from Yale Law School before joining the Johnson administration.

“I hope that I made a contribution in that time,” he said prior to his death during an interview with FOX affiliateWNYW.

After leaving the government during the Nixon administration, Alexander became the first Black partner at a major D.C. law firm and hosted a syndicated news commentary show before Carter tapped him for the Army secretary position, according to thePost.

Charles Kelly/AP/Shutterstock

Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander Jr., said at a Fort McPherson news conference, that contrary to the opinion of some, he does not think the Army has too many generals, in Atlanta on . Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., said recently that he believes the number of active generals should be reduced

“Inclusiveness is something that says ‘if you see someone out here that can do the job, bring them on in,'” Alexander told WNYW.

By the time he left the secretary position, Alexander had paved a path for more Black officers to become generals, includingColin Powell, who would later serve as the first Black Secretary of State.

source: people.com