Harry McPherson
| Harry McPherson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| White House Counsel | |
|
In office February 11, 1966 – October 26, 1967 |
|
| President | Lyndon Johnson |
| Preceded by | Lee White |
| Succeeded by | Larry Temple |
| Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs | |
|
In office August 23, 1964 – August 14, 1965 |
|
| President | Lyndon Johnson |
| Preceded by | Lucius Battle |
| Succeeded by | Charles Frankel |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 22, 1929 Tyler, Texas, U.S. |
| Died |
February 16, 2012 (aged 82) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education |
Southern Methodist University University of the South (BA) Columbia University (MA) University of Texas, Austin (LLB) |
Harry Cummings McPherson, Jr. (August 22, 1929 – February 16, 2012) served as counsel and special counsel to President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969 and was Johnson’s chief speechwriter from 1966 to 1969. McPherson’s A Political Education, 1972, is a classic insider’s view of Washington and an essential source for Johnson’s presidency. A prominent Washington lawyer and lobbyist since 1969, McPherson was awarded American Lawyer magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. He died February 16, 2012, in Bethesda, Maryland.
McPherson was born and raised in Tyler, Texas. He attended Southern Methodist University and received his B.A. in 1949 from the University of the South. Intending to be a poet and a writer, he enrolled at Columbia University for a master's degree in English literature. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, however, he enlisted in the Air Force. McPherson served in Germany as an intelligence officer, studying Russian troop deployments and plotting targets.
As soon as the Korean War ended, McPherson enrolled at the University of Texas School of Law.
This was the era when McCarthyism was at its peak. I was very upset about Joe McCarthy and decided that I wanted to be a lawyer to defend people against the likes of McCarthy. I was worried that he was going to usher a period of totalitarianism in the United States. I wanted to fight that.
He received his LL.B. in 1956. Shortly afterwards, he was invited to Washington by a cousin who worked for Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson, who was at the time the Senate majority leader, was seeking a young lawyer from Texas to work for the Democratic Policy Committee, which Johnson chaired.
McPherson served as assistant general counsel (1956–1959), associate counsel (1959–1961) and general counsel (1961–1963) to the Democratic Policy Committee, the Democratic Party’s key legislative policy organ on the Senate side. His duties included summarizing bills coming before the Senate for members of the Calendar Committee. An outspoken advocate for civil rights, he helped draft legislation that became the Civil Rights Act of 1957, whose goal was to ensure that all African Americans could exercise their right to vote. After Kennedy was elected with Johnson as his vice president, McPherson continued to serve as counsel to the Democratic Policy Committee under Senator Mike Mansfield.
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