From Robe to Swallowtail

It is no secret around Washington that Lyndon Johnson would like to become the first President to appoint a Negro to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last week, Johnson did the next thing to it when he named Federal Judge Thurgood Marshall, 57, to the prestigious post of U.S. Solicitor General. Marshall will replace Archibald Cox, 53, a former Harvard Law School professor who is resigning after four years of Government service.

As chief legal officer for the N.A.A.C.P., Marshall became a national figure in 1954 when he successfully argued the landmark school-desegregation case of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education before the Supreme Court. In all, he argued 32 civil rights cases before the high court, won 29 of them. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Marshall to a lifetime job on the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals (New York, Connecticut and Vermont). After almost a year's delay because of the objections of Southern Senators, the Senate finally confirmed Marshall's appointment.

If approved by the Senate, Marshall will become the 33rd U.S. Solicitor General and the first Negro to hold the office. Wearing the traditional garb of swallowtail coat and striped pants, he will argue the Federal Government's most important cases before the Supreme Court and have considerable say about which cases the Government takes to the Supreme Court on appeal.

In making the appointment, Johnson described Marshall as a "leading champion of equal rights under the law," noted that he was taking the new job, which pays $28,500 a year--$4,500 less than his federal judgeship--and has a tenure subject to the President's pleasure, at a "very considerable financial sacrifice." Marshall might find that sacrifice worthwhile--if there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court while Johnson is still in office.

Last week in other appointments, Johnson named:

> Leonard Marks, 49, a Washington communications lawyer, and a close Johnson family friend who has represented the family's Austin radio-television station since 1952, to become director of the U.S. Information Agency, replacing Carl Rowan, who has resigned. Marks, who has served as assistant to the general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, has represented the U.S. at international conferences on broadcasting and communications, is presently a board member of the Communications Satellite Corp., the Government-regulated organization that owns the Early Bird satellite. Known as a first-rate administrator, his appointment to the $30,000-a-year post is viewed with wariness at USIA, where the chief concern is Marks's lack of knowledge about the countries in which the agency operates. Said one top USIA staffer about the appointment: "There are no great screams of enthusiasm."

> Dr. Penelope Hartland Thunberg, 47, an expert in international economics for the Central Intelligence Agency, to a vacancy on the U.S. Tariff Commission. A winner of the 1965 Federal Women's Award for outstanding Government career service, Dr. Thunberg was notified of her appointment only two hours before she went to the White House to be introduced during President Johnson's press conference.

> Raymond A. Hare, 64, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, to succeed Phillips Talbot as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. Talbot will become U.S. Ambassador to Greece, replacing Henry R. Labouisse, who resigned last March to become director of the United Nations Children's Fund.

> Dr. Robert Mayer White, 42, chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau and brother of Political Author Theodore White, to become acting administrator of a new Government agency called the Environmental Science Services Administration, which will combine the Weather Bureau and the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.

> Major Hugh Robinson, 33, as the President's Army aide. Robinson is the first Negro to be named to a President's staff of personal military aides.

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