Allan E. Goodman
“You really need to interview her.” This advice from the head of the U.S. Information Agency’s (USIA) Equal Employment Opportunity Office made it clear that Harriet Elam had succeeded. She was in line to become the senior-most Foreign Service officer at the agency. She would soon be its counselor. And, many said, an ambassadorship would be next.
I was struck initially by the character of her office. It was grand as government offices go and clearly thought out. A visitor would see the traces of service abroad, commendations, and above all, that it was just neat and proper. What Harriet did not know is that the head of personnel had just given me a tour of the old USIA/Voice of America headquarters. The Wilbur J. Cohen Building had been constructed in 1940 and contained some famous Ben Shahn murals, depicting the era of the New Deal.
But my attention was directed to two water fountains. A few feet separated them. “Remember,” I was told, “the U.S. government used to be segregated. It started with Woodrow Wilson. We had separate bathrooms and still have these separate fountains.” I found their continued existence, this particular lesson in history, strange.
Harriet would give me another, more pleasant lesson that day when I made a casual remark about how elegant her office appeared. I expected she would give me the tour of where she had been for each of the pictures and artifacts displayed. Instead, she said what made the office nice for her and others on the executive floor was how hard the cleaning staff worked to keep things clean. “We all work pretty late into the evening. And only when we go home do the cleaners get to start their work. It isn’t easy, and I am grateful to them every morning I come back in.”
Over the next twenty-five years, I would learn a lot from Harriet.
The date of our first encounter was 1995. I had been asked by the director of the USIA, Joe Duffey, to conduct an independent study of the diversity of the USIA Foreign Service personnel and to determine if the agency offered equality of opportunity in promotions, salary, and awards. The Foreign Service Act of 1980 had mandated that equality and required that “the members of America’s Foreign Service should be representative of the American people.”
The report I submitted later was entitled “Separate and Unequal.” I had found that at virtually every level in the service and at every opportunity to be recognized for an award, I would not want to change the color of my white skin. Sadly, I found that some on duty also regarded it as important that the two water fountains be kept as they were, saying so openly. I found much worse. These same officers advanced much faster in their careers, despite behavior and attitudes that should have no place in our public service today, no matter what President Wilson did or thought in his time.
Harriet’s book is about what people can achieve and do when they do not look like me. And what we all can learn by their stories and their leadership.
Our Declaration of Independence, citing “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind,” recognizes an American trait, a need to explain things. We believe telling our story is important. We need able diplomats who can do this to the many audiences at places where most of the people do not look like me. Although I do not know the exact level of diversity in the Foreign Service today, I am fairly sure we are still far from the goal Congress intended. We need more people like Harriet, people willing to devote their lives to a difficult task. This book ought to inspire as well as inform. It does for me.
As Harriet notes, diplomats need “a mixture of empathy, persuasion, bluster, and courage.” Amen. They also need to be able to light up a room when they speak and to remember to thank those who came to hear them—and those who will clean up and turn out the lights after everyone else has gone home.
Over the course of my travels, I have actually met many of the local staff who served with Harriet in her various posts. They speak of her with appreciation and a certain reverence, not because she achieved so much or rose so high but because she never forgot her roots or the role Foreign Service nationals played in contributing to her success.
One lesson from this book is that it is sometimes the little things that contribute importantly to the decent regard people have for us and that this aspect of diplomacy pays dividends over many years. As this book so eloquently reports, the girl from Roxbury did exceptionally well at representing us all.