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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-KGH-02
In this interview Heath discusses how she came to join the Office of Education; the leadership within the Office of Education and different ideas on how it should be run; other agencies within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare [HEW]; changes in the status and administration of HEW; various pieces of education legislation; the 1954 Supreme Court decision on separate but equal and segregation in schools; international education affairs; the reasons for pushing for general school aid over categorical aid; the 1955 White House conference on education; coalescing all the organizations within HEW into one voice for the Department; working with other Departments; the International Labor Organization and the United Nations; getting political support from the different presidential Administrations; the nationalization of the Suez Canal; the shift to considering social matters in a much broader context; the impact of the Sputnik launch on the Office of Education; and the National Defense Education Act, among other issues.
Collection
WICPP
Papers, 1922-2011 (bulk 1948-2004). Congressional staffer; federal and local government official; educator; consultant; advocate for criminal justice reform. Legislative assistant, Congressman Brooks Hays of Arkansas (1956-1959); legislative assistant and press secretary, Senator Clair Engle of California (1959-1960); research analyst, Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (1960-1961); assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Affairs, U.S. Department of State (1961-1962); White House staffer (1962-1966); staff director, Senate Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations (1962-1963); special assistant to the staff director, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1963-1965); special assistant to the administrator for equal opportunity, Agency for International Development (1965-1967); director of legislative affairs, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1967-1969); management consultant (1969-1975); Mount Vernon Supervisor, Fairfax County (Va.) Board of Supervisors (1975-1980); senior staff member, Center for Public Policy Education, the Brookings Institution (1975-1993); vice chairman, National Committee on Community Corrections (1987-2004); author, In Search of Middle Ground: Memoirs of a Washington Insider (2005). Professional and personal papers documenting lengthy career in Washington, D.C., and community volunteer work, with an emphasis on civil rights, intergovernmental relations, equal employment regulations, health care policy, criminal justice, and prison industries. Correspondence, drafts, writings, reports, conference files, notes, research material, press releases, speeches, and news clippings.