During the administrations of presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, he served first as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights from 1961 to 1965, and then as head of the division from 1965 until 1967.

He also prosecuted Collie Leroy Wilkins for federal civil rights violations in the murder of Viola Liuzzo,[9] gaining conviction by an all-white jury in Alabama.

In 1963, he calmed an angry mob after the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, murdered outside his home.

He also acted as the federal chief counsel during the Theron Lynd litigation, a circuit clerk and voter registrar in Forrest County, Mississippi accused of discrimination.

[14] During his tenure he supported gender discrimination, opposing the entry of girls to all-boy high schools.

[4] He was survived by his children: Gael, Michael, Robert (a former Commissioner of the New York City Human Resources Administration) and Burke.