At the height of the civil rights movement, Andrew Brimmer became the first African-American governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Feb. 26, 1966. He was appointed to the position by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Before becoming a governor, Brimmer was a staff economist at the Federal Reserve, who had received his Ph.D. from Harvard Business School, and was deputy assistant secretary of commerce under President John F. Kennedy. 

During his eight years at the Reserve, he spoke openly about economic conditions for African-Americans and researched racial disparities of wages and income. In 1974, he stepped down and became a professor at the Harvard Business School. 
Brimmer passed away at the age of 86 on Oct. 7, 2012.
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