Reeves served then-Candidate
John F. Kennedy as a minority affairs adviser during his 1960 campaign, and ran for and was elected as the first African American member of the
Democratic National Committee in 1960, where he seconded Kennedy's nomination as the Democratic Party's Presidential Candidate. Historian Brett Gadsden considered Frank D. Reeves -- along with Kennedy's other black campaign advisors,
Louis E. Martin and
Marjorie Lawson -- to be essential in convincing prominent black figures to endorse and vote for him in the
1960 United States presidential election, leading to his victory in Maryland, Illinois and Michigan and leading to his overall victory. After Kennedy became
President of the United States in January 1961, Reeves became the first African American to serve as a Presidential administrative assistant. Kennedy nominated him to the governing commission of the District of Columbia, but withdrew the nomination in June 1961 following a Senate inquiry into his tax payments. in Washington, D.C., is named after Frank D. Reeves. He served on
Howard University's Board of Trustees from 1961 to 1966, and was a founding member of the
National Conference of Black Lawyers in 1969. In 1970, he became the first executive director of the
Joint Center for Political Studies. == Personal life ==