[Baskerville Series] Saluting A Virginia African American Woman Cabinet Member

By Viola O. Baskerville

Ruby Grant Martin (1933-2003)

It was not until the administration of Virginia Governor A. Linwood Holton, Jr. (1970-1974) that there was a Governor’s Cabinet. Prior to this time, dozens of agency directors reported to the Governor. In a move to re-organize the executive branch reporting and accountability system, the Governor’s Cabinet was instituted. Under the Holton administration there was a small gubernatorial cabinet consisting of six white men. Over the next 40 years and nine administrations later, the number of cabinet members and the diversity of the membership changed. Currently, under the McDonnell administration there are eleven cabinet secretaries representing broad categories from administration to technology and a chief of staff.

Of the slightly more than one hundred men and women who have served or who are serving as at-will, hand selected individuals by the Governor of Virginia to give advice and oversee state agencies, only twenty-five are women, and of those twenty-five women, only seven are African American. Governor John N. Dalton (1978-1982) appointed the first African American women cabinet secretary. Ten years later, Civil Rights lawyer Ruby Grant Martin (1933-2003) was appointed Secretary of Administration by Governor L. Douglas Wilder in 1990.  Ms. Martin was born in Arkansas but grew up in Cleveland. She was a graduate of Fisk University and Howard Law School.  Ms. Martin served under President Lyndon Baines Johnson and became the first Director of the Office for Civil Rights in the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1968. She served as counsel to the House Committee on the District of Columbia and co-authored the bill that proposed home rule for the District of Columbia.

As Secretary of Administration for the Governor’s Office, Ms. Martin oversaw the departments of general services and personnel and training. During Wilder’s administration, she was very active in his efforts to establish trade relations with African countries. What a phenomenal woman who made a tremendous difference at a local, national and international level!!!

Can you name the six other African American women who have served as cabinet members to Virginia Governors since 1978?