Samuel Riley Pierce Jr. (September 8, 1922 – October 31, 2000) was an American attorney and politician who served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from January 23, 1981 until January 20, 1989, during the administration of Ronald Reagan.
Early life
Pierce Jr. was born and grew up in Glen Cove, New York. His father, also Samuel Pierce, came from Virginia to New York as a young man in 1899 during the early years of the Great Migration of Black Americans who were fleeing Jim Crow laws and poor economic opportunities.[1][note 1] Pierce (senior) worked at the Nassau Country Club, on Long Island, for over forty years.[2]
In 1981, Pierce became Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Ronald Reagan. Pierce was Reagan's only African-American Cabinet member and the only cabinet member to serve in his post throughout both of Reagan's terms as President. On June 18, 1981 during a luncheon for the US Conference of Mayors in Washington DC, President Reagan mistook Pierce for one of the mayors on the dais, infamously greeting him, "Hello, Mr. Mayor."[9] Due to his perceived low profile within the Reagan administration, he was sometimes derided as "Silent Sam."[10] During Pierce's tenure, HUD appropriations for low-income housing were cut by nearly half and funding all but ended for new housing construction.[5] According to several former aides and HUD employees, Pierce, uninterested in his job, would often delegate important decisions to advisors and would watch television in his office.[5][11][12]
Political scandal
After leaving office, he was investigated by the United States Office of the Independent Counsel and the United States Congress over mismanagement, abuse and political favoritism that took place in the department during his tenure, but not personally charged.[8] The investigation found that under Pierce's stewardship the department engaged in political favoritism and trading of influence.[8] Millions of dollars of federal government money was given to projects sought by connected politicians of both parties, in violation of rules governing such grants and expenditures.[8] Through the 1990s many of Pierce's closest aides and confidants at the department were charged and convicted on felony charges related to the political favoritism and inappropriate expenditures that pervaded the department during Pierce's tenure (Thomas Demery, Phillip Winn, Joseph Strauss and Deborah Gore Dean).[5][13]
^Michael Riley, Nancy Traver and Samuel Pierce (September 18, 1989). "Silent Sam Speaks Up". Archived from the original on May 8, 2009. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
