After graduating from Howard, where his majors were in public administration and sociology, he went on to American University to pursue a doctorate in the same fields. He had finished everything but his dissertation before deciding to go to law school instead.

He eventually earned a law degree in 1948 by going to school nights while beginning a career in local government. He first worked for the city's Alley Dwelling Authority, which was begun to improve the servants' quarters that lined the alleys behind wealthy family's houses. The agency later became the National Capital Housing Authority.

He became its first black executive director in 1961, when Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy came by unannounced to offer him the job. In his five years with the authority, he increased its low-income housing by 50 percent and tried to employ the best architects.

In 1966, he told Bar Report, President Johnson asked him to become president of the board of commissioners that ran Washington's government. Mr. Washington refused the job when the president said that he would not have responsibility for the police and fire departments.

''President Johnson didn't like hearing that,'' Mr. Washington said. ''He became incensed and the conversation was terminated.''

Mr. Washington then accepted an invitation from Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York to become chairman of the New York City Housing Authority. He tried to address the social needs of people living in public housing by offering day care centers, credit unions, financial counseling and youth recreation.

Meanwhile, President Johnson was pressing a proposal in Congress to increase Washington's self-government, after failing to win passage of a much broader initiative two years earlier. His idea was to have a single commissioner who he hoped would be called mayor. Though Congress would oversee the city's budget and have the opportunity to veto its laws, Johnson believed that the new system would represent a large step toward genuine home rule.