Mrs Sampson was appointed by President Truman to this position. In 1961, she became the 1st Black U.S representative to NATO. Edith Spurlock Sampson was a lawyer and judge. She was a member of the UN’s Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee, where she lobbied for continued support of work in social welfare. She also presented a resolution pressuring the Soviet Union to repatriate the remains of its Prisoners of War from World War II. She was reappointed to the UN in 1952 and served until 1953. During the Eisenhower Administration, she was a member of the U.S. Commission for UNESCO.