From 1959 to 1961, he was Chargé d'affaires in Washington DC. Early in the spring of 1961, a snub turned into an international incident, when he stopped for dinner with his driver at a Howard Johnson's restaurant on the outskirts of Hagerstown, Maryland en route to Pittsburgh for a lecture.[2] Both men were refused service because of their color. President John F. Kennedy, appalled by what had transpired, received Fitzjohn in the White House. The president of Howard Johnson's apologized for the snub while the mayor of Hagerstown, Winslow F. Burhans, invited him to a dinner with several of the city's leading citizens.[3]