Sworn in by President John F. Kennedy, Howard Jenkins Jr. served on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for 20 years under six presidents and was the first African American to serve on the board. Before his service on the NLRB, he worked in the Office of the Solicitor at the Department of Labor, where he helped draft the Landrum-Griffin Act. Following the passage of the law, he went on to serve as the Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor-Management Reports, where he was the highest-ranking African American lawyer in the federal government.