Reagan Weighs Naming Black as Ambassador to South Africa
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WASHINGTON — The Reagan Administration is considering a black businessman from North Carolina for nomination as the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, an Administration source said today.
Robert Brown, 51, a public relations and management consultant from High Point, N.C., would succeed Herman Nickel, who is currently on home leave.
Earlier this year, Brown led a group of black educators to South Africa to help develop a U.S. program for training teachers and otherwise improving education opportunities for blacks.
He served as a special assistant to former President Richard M. Nixon and is a friend of Mayor Andrew Young of Atlanta and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The source, asked about a report first published in this week’s Time magazine, said there were other candidates under consideration as well. These were understood to include Richard Viets, 55, a career foreign service officer.
Brown would be the first black envoy to the white-ruled country.
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