the boards of Scott Paper, the National Bank of Washington, and Chase Manhattan Bank. Upon her appointment to the Chase Manhattan board, she observed: "The demands on the small pool of blacks allowed to develop in the last 300 years is too great. What has to happen is that this pool must be increased, and that's something that big corporations can help to do. I'm a first on many boards, but I'm not going to be content to remain the only black, or the only woman." Harris continued making an impact on the Democratic Party when, in 1972, she was appointed chairman of the credentials committee and, in 1973, a member-at-large of the Democratic National Committee. A testimony to her effectiveness and her commitment to excellence came when President Jimmy Carter appointed her to two cabinet-level posts during his administration. Cabinet Secretary Harris was appointed to the cabinet of President Jimmy Carter as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) when Carter took office in 1977. At her confirmation hearing, Senator William Proxmire questioned whether Harris came from a background of too much wealth and power to be an effective H.U.D. Secretary. She responded: "I am a black woman, the daughter of a Pullman (railroad) car waiter. I am a black woman who even eight years ago could not buy a house in parts of the District of Columbia. I didn't start out as a member of a prestigious law firm, but as a woman who needed a scholarship to go to school. If you think I have forgotten that, you are wrong." Otherwise, her confirmation went smoothly. By this time in Harris' life she had established herself as not only a recognized leader for civil rights, but also as a prominent corporate lawyer and businesswoman. Once confirmed, Harris became the first African American woman to enter the Presidential line of succession. She served as HUD Secretary from 1977 to 1979, reorganizing the department and shifting from knocking down slums to rehabilitating the neighborhoods through millions of dollars of funding and her Neighborhood Strategy Program for rebuilding, Urban Development Action Grants for luring businesses back into cities, and an expanded Urban Homesteading Plan. The Washington Post, looking back at her reforms several years later, noted: "[A]fter two years as secretary, the agency had changed from a mere extension of the nation's housing industry to an advocate for saving inner cities."