Early Life and Family
Washington, the great-grandson of an American slave, was born in Dawson, Georgia and raised in Jamestown, New York. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from Howard University and his law degree from Howard University School of Law. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
After graduating from Howard in 1948, Washington was hired as a supervisor for D.C.'s Alley Dwelling Authority. He worked for the authority until a 1961 appointment by John F. Kennedy as the Executive Director of the National Capital Housing Authority, the housing department of the then-Federally controlled District of Columbia. In 1966 he took the same position in the administration of New York City mayor John Lindsay.
His first wife, Bennetta Bullock, died in 1991. By this marriage he had one daughter, sociologist Bennetta Jules-Rosette. In 1994 he married Mary Burke.
Read more about this topic: Walter Washington
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or family:
“I would observe to you that what is called style in writing or speaking is formed very early in life while the imagination is warm, and impressions are permanent.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“It may be that the ignorant man, alone,
Has any chance to mate his life with life
That is the sensual, pearly spouse, the life
That is fluent in even the wintriest bronze.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The family spirit has rendered man carnivorous.”
—Francis Picabia (1878–1953)