Background
Fletcher, Arthur Allan was born on December 22, 1924 in Camp Huachuca, Arizona, United States. Son of Andrew and Edna Fletcher.
Fletcher, Arthur Allan was born on December 22, 1924 in Camp Huachuca, Arizona, United States. Son of Andrew and Edna Fletcher.
Arthur Fletcher, a Republican, graduated from Washburn University and obtained a degree from distance learning school Louisiana Salle Extension University.
He also organized a community self-help program in predominantly black East Pasco, and landed a seat on the Pasco City Council. In 1968, Fletcher ran for Lieutenant Governor of Washington State, and narrowly lost to the incumbent, John Cherberg. Fletcher was the first African American in Washington as well as the West to contest a statewide electoral office.
During the campaign, his driver and bodyguard was Ted Bundy, the serial killer who was active in Republican Party politics in the late 1960s through the early 1970s.
Fletcher"s close race for Lieutenant Governor got the attention of newly elected President Richard Nixon, who gave Fletcher a job in the incoming administration as Assistant Secretary of Labor. An African American, he served in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and George H. West. Bush administrations.
In 1978, Fletcher ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Washington, District of Columbia, but was defeated by the popular Democrat Marion Barry. In 1995, he briefly pursued a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
Numbers of his fellow Republicans were often at odds with the affirmative action policies which Fletcher initiated and supported as the chairman from 1990 to 1993 of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
As head of the United Negro College Fund, Fletcher coined the famous slogan, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
Fletcher was a United States Army veteran during World World War II and upon his death in 2005 was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Married Mary Fletcher (deceased 1961). Married Bernyce Hassan.