- After the subsequent resignation of President Nixon in August 1974, Ford immediately assumed the presidency.
- He appointed William Coleman as Secretary of Transportation, the second African-American to serve in a presidential cabinet and the first appointed in a Republican administration
Gerald Ford as president didn’t really do anything when it came to civil rights. Taking over for Nixon, he had to deal with watergate and a failing economy.
I’m going to give him a pass because a younger Ford voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . He really didn’t get a chance to show us what he could have done with civil rights.