Black History Month: Blinken State Dept Ceremony Renaming Truman Cafeteria After Amb. Terence Todman

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Secretary Antony Blinken At Ceremony Renaming Harry S. Truman Cafeteria After Ambassador Terence A. Todman

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

BLINKEN:

Only two years before his birth, the Rogers Act created the Foreign Service exam, which promised that State Department appointments would be made on merit.

But that same year, the chairman of the Foreign Service Personnel Board made clear to reviewers that any black applicant who passed the written exam should be rejected in the oral exam. The board’s executive committee even drafted a memo suggesting that President Coolidge issue an executive order to, and I quote, “relieve the Government of the necessity,” end quote, of appointing blacks, women, and naturalized citizens.

Over the next two decades, as Terence became the first member of his family to graduate from high school, only a handful of black men were able to join the Foreign Service. At their urging, in 1949, the department carried out a study on opportunities for black staff. America’s first black ambassador, Edward Dudley, and his team led this effort.

This was the institution that Terence joined in 1952. The first morning he reported to work, the chief of personnel told him that the department couldn’t hire him. In the official’s words, they needed people who were, and I quote, “100 percent identifiable as Americans.” Terence demanded a chance to speak with the director of the Office of South Asian Affairs, where he had been assigned.

William Witman II was the archetype of the department: white, male, Yale, as the saying goes. He told Terence the job would be a lot of work, that he couldn’t afford to waste any spots. Terence said this: “If you didn’t have work for me, I wouldn’t want to be in your office.”
Witman gave Ambassador Todman a shot, which was all he ever needed, all he ever wanted. Years later, when he was appointed ambassador to Togo, Witman asked Terence to be his deputy.
In those first years at State, Terence has said, people would regularly knock on his door looking for Mr. Todman. And he’d say, “Well, I’m Mr. Todman, come on in.” And they’d say, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Ambassador Todman later said, “It took them a while to accept that I could be the person responsible for some activities.” Which was putting it diplomatically.
His first posting abroad was to India, where he was initially given the assignments that no one else wanted. One was writing a report on wheat production, in preparation for a visit by a congressional delegation from the Midwest. Terence threw himself into that work. He met with small farmers, with agronomists, with the local businessmen – people he could talk to because he had learned Hindi. The report was so impressive that he was asked to brief the congressmen in person. And the U.S. ambassador at the time, the great Ellsworth Bunker, started taking Terence with him whenever he traveled to the field.
Another part of his approach was Terence’s commitment to learning everything that there was to know before reaching a conclusion. Knowing your facts – that was what was expected, whether you served under Ambassador Todman or, as I’ve heard indirectly, sitting around the kitchen table. If you took a position, you’d better be able to back it up.
A junior officer who worked for Terence decades later, when he was ambassador to Spain, remembered that he arrived at the office every morning having read all the major Spanish and international papers.
When he was appointed assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs in Carter administration, he was charged with reopening diplomatic talks with Cuba.
The first meeting was held in New York. When the Cuban delegation arrived, Ambassador Todman walked over, extended a hand and, in perfect Spanish, assured them that the warmth of the talks would more than make up for the freezing temperatures outside, and he remembered seeing immediate relief on the faces of the Cuban guests.
When Fidel Castro wanted to finish the negotiations in Havana, some in the administration were reluctant to let Ambassador Todman lead the U.S. delegation. He told them, “If you don’t think I’m able to take care of our interests in dealing with Castro, then I shouldn’t be assistant secretary of state.” They relented; Terence delivered. The talks led to a series of agreements, including the opening of the first U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
This happened again and again during Ambassador Todman’s career. He was an extraordinary diplomat. But because he was a Black diplomat, he was routinely forced to prove himself worthy to serve the country that he loved.
https://www.state.gov/secretary-anton...