Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr.

Who was Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr.?

Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. was a civil rights activist and was the chief lobbyist for the NAACP for nearly 30 years. He also served as a regional director for the organization. Mitchell, nicknamed "the 101st U.S. Senator", waged a tireless campaign on Capitol Hill to secure the passage of a comprehensive series of civil rights laws: the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the 1960 Civil Rights Act, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. In 1969 he won the Spingarn Medal for these efforts. Later he faced some criticism in the black community for supporting Daniel Patrick Moynihan and defending the state of Israel. On June 9, 1980, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter. After his retirement, he wrote a Sunday editorial column for The Baltimore Sun, every Sunday, until he died in 1984. The Sun called it "an extraordinary commentary on the civil rights movement." On March 23, 1984, the Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church overflowed with 2,500 mourners who gathered from around the country to pay their respects. Included among them was Harry R. Hughes, the Governor of Maryland, William Donald Schaefer, the Mayor of Baltimore, Benjamin Hooks, director of the NAACP, and Dorothy Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women. A week after his death, the newspaper proposed that there be a physical memorial to Mitchell. Mayor Schaefer agreed and appointed a commission to study the recommendation. Today, the main court house in Baltimore City has been renamed the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse as well as a 35,000-square-foot building that houses the engineering program at Morgan State University. He was a member of the University of Maryland Board of Regents, from 1982 to 1984. The main admission building at the University is named after him.