Joint Center lauds black Clinton appointees in D.C.; Elders, Powell standouts - Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' reception for African Americans in the Clinton Administration; Joycelyn Elders, Colin Powell

Jet, August 23, 1993

After a 12-year Republican monopol on the White House, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' reception for Black appointees of President Clinton in Washington's Hotel Willard ballroom served as a premier VIP get-to-gether and the year's first major social function.

Not since the inauguration had such a high number of Black administration officials congregated in the nation's capital, yet there was little celebration.

The expensively-dressed guests, many in designer or tailored suits, were more concerned about mobilizing support for passage of the President's budget measures on Capitol Hill, in order to bring relief to the disadvantaged.

These are difficult times for our people," a guest told Jet. "The suffering in the inner cities and the rural sections sober up any Black middle-class member. The last thing we need is an image that all we do in Washington, is party."

Host for the quadrennial event, first started in 1976 by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, was president Eddie Williams who mingled among the 1,000 guests introducing some of the record number of appointees never before showcased.

More than 100 of the appointees, ranging from Alexis N. Herman, director of the White House Public Liaison to Office of Management and the Budget (OMB) Associate director Chris Edley Jr., Treasury enforcement chief Ron Noble to Drug czar Lee Brown, let it be known that there was no more popular official than Surgeon General-designate Dr. Joycelyn Elders.

No guest came anywhere near in the surge for autographs and requests for inclusion in pictures with for inclusion in pictures with her. Probably attending his last Black social event in the city as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Colin Powell, shook hands with his admirers for most of the evening.

Quietly staying in the background was the Black man who as Democractic Party chairman had engineered the Clinton election victory - secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.

The election of the first Democratic president in more than a decade had already resulted in an infusion of millions of dollars in salaries to the VIPs but now the focus was on implementing "the quality of life" for millions of low income Americans.