Clarence McClane Pendleton Jr. (November 10, 1930 – June 5, 1988) was the politically
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
chairman of the
United States Commission on Civil Rights
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (CCR) is a bipartisan, independent commission of the United States federal government, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 during the Eisenhower administration, that is charged with the responsibility f ...
, a position that he held from 1981 until his death during the administration of
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
.
Background
A native of
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...
,
Pendleton was raised in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, where he graduated from
historically black Dunbar High School and then
Howard University
Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
, where his father,
Clarence Pendleton, was the first swimming coach at the institution. After high school, Pendleton, like his grandfather and father before him, enrolled at Howard where he earned a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degree in 1954. After a three-year tour of duty in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
during the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
, Pendleton returned to Howard, where he was on the physical education faculty and pursued his master's degree in professional education.
Pendleton succeeded his father as the Howard swimming coach, and the team procured ten championships in eleven years.
[ He also coached rowing, football, and baseball at Howard.]
From 1968 to 1970, Pendleton was the recreation coordinator under the Model Cities Program
The Model Cities Program was an element of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty. The concept was presented by labor leader Walter Reuther to President Johnson in an off-the-record White House meeting on May 20, 1965 ...
in Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
, Maryland. In 1970, he was named director of the urban affairs department of the National Recreation and Park Association
The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) is a not-for-profit organization focused on utilizing parks and recreation to build strong, vibrant and resilient communities. They invest in and champion the work of professionals in the field ...
. In 1972, Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
Pete Wilson
Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American attorney and politician who served as governor of California from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Wilson previously served as a United S ...
, later a U.S. senator
The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
and the governor of California
The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The Governor (United States), governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard.
Established in the Constit ...
, recruited Pendleton to head the Model Cities program in San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
, California. In 1975, Pendleton was named director of the San Diego branch of the National Urban League
The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for Afri ...
.[
A former liberal Democrat, Pendleton switched to the Republican Party in 1980 and supported Reagan for President.][ Pendleton claimed that minorities had become dependent on government social programs which create a cycle of dependence. African Americans, he said, should build strong relations with the private sector and end ties to liberal bureaucrats and philosophies.][
]
United States Commission on Civil Rights
In his first year in office, President Reagan named Pendleton to replace the liberal Republican commission chairman, Arthur Sherwood Flemming, who had been the United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
The United States secretary of health and human services is the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all health matters. The secretary is ...
during the final years of the Eisenhower administration
Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure as the 34th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1953, and ended on January 20, 1961. Eisenhower, a Republican from Kansas, took office following his landslide victor ...
. The Republican-majority U.S. Senate approved the nomination, and Pendleton became the first black chairman of the commission. He supported the Reagan social agenda and hence came into conflict with long-established civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
views. He opposed the use of cross-town school busing to bring about racial balance among pupils. He challenged the need for affirmative action
Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies) refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking ...
policies[ because he claimed that African Americans could succeed without special consideration being written into law. Pendleton was as outspoken on the political right as was the later Democratic chairman Mary Frances Berry on the left. Pendleton made headlines for saying black civil rights leaders were "the new racists" because they advocated affirmative action, racial quotas, and set-asides. He likened the feminist issue of equal pay for equal work, written into law in the ]Equal Pay Act of 1963
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a United States labor law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex (see gender pay gap). It was signed into law on June 10, 1963, by John F. Kennedy as part of his New F ...
, to be "like reparations for white women."
Pendleton denounced the feminist concept of comparable worth
Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full ...
in the establishment of male and female pay scales as "probably the looniest idea since Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...
came on the screen."
Under Pendleton's chairmanship, congressional funding for the agency was reduced. This prompted some staff members either to lose their positions or to leave the agency in discouragement.[ Pendleton was considered acerbic by his liberal critics. William Bradford Reynolds, Reagan's Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, described his friend Pendleton as "a man of candor who felt very deeply that the individuals in America should deal with one another as brothers and sisters totally without regard to race and background."][
On December 23, 1983, with two Democratic members named by the House dissenting, Pendleton was reelected to a second term as commission chairman. He drew the backing of Reagan's new appointee, Esther Buckley, an educator from ]Laredo, Texas
Laredo ( ; ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Webb County, Texas, Webb County, on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Founded in 1755, Laredo grew from a villag ...
.
Under Pendleton's tenure, the commission was split by an internal debate over fundamental principles of equality under the law. The commission narrowed the description of legal and political rights at the expense of social and economic claims. The debate centered principally between Pendleton and Berry, an original appointee of President Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
. Democrat Morris B. Abram, also a Reagan appointee, was vice chairman under Pendleton. He described "an intellectual sea change" at the agency with the conservative view dominant at that time. Authorized under the Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first federal civil rights law passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The bill was passed by the 85th United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. E ...
, the commission was reconstituted by a 1983 law of Congress after Reagan dismissed three commissioners critical of his policies.
In the spring of 1986, the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' urged that the outspoken Pendleton either be removed from the commission or that his policies be reversed in the interest of minorities and women. A reader of the ''Los Angeles Times'' challenged the newspaper's position regarding Pendleton in a Letter to the Editor: "Once again, ''The Times'' is advocating quotas, so-called affirmative action and other failed and discredited policies that germinated during Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...
's not-so-Great Society
The Great Society was a series of domestic programs enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the United States between 1964 and 1968, aimed at eliminating poverty, reducing racial injustice, and expanding social welfare in the country. Johnso ...
of the late 1960s."
Sudden death
On June 5, 1988, Pendleton collapsed while working out at the San Diego Hilton Tennis Club. He died an hour later of a heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
at a hospital. President Reagan rang his wife Magrit to offer his condolences, writing in his diary: "Another sad phone call to Clarence Pendleton's widow—a widow as of yesterday. He had a heart attack while riding an exercycle."
The White House released a statement that day from the President which said:Yesterday, with the sudden death of Clarence Pendleton, America lost a leading apostle of a just and colorblind society...In his uncompromising articulation of the ideal of a colorblind society open to all without regard to race, giving no quarter to either prejudice or preference, Penny insisted that the full brunt of the law should be brought to bear on discrimination. At the same time, he understood that the law must itself not deviate from the Constitution's mandate of nondiscrimination for any reason lest it become a double-edged sword, harming the innocent and poorly serving those most in need of protection...
Penny has been taken from us—and my heart goes out to his family and friends—but what Penny leaves us are fond memories of a man who loved life and made us love it more for his time among us, and a fuller confidence, because of his work, that one day all Americans will be judged not by stereotypes and prejudices but on their own merits, qualifications, performance—as Penny often quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., "not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
On Pendleton's death, Francis Guess, another black Republican on the commission, said that the chairman's colorful statement weakened his debate points: "It is sad that Chairman Pendleton's legacy will revolve around not what he said, but how he said it."
William B. Allen, an African American political scientist formerly at Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...
who succeeded Pendleton as the commission chairman and served in that capacity from 1988 to 1989, said that Pendleton "taught us that we could talk about civil rights without being a one-note band. ... We're a symphony. He reminded us that affirmative action was a goal and not a remedy." In his eulogy of Pendleton, Allen refers to the former chairman as "a brave man, whose bravery and great self-sacrifice were summoned by the cause of America, not as a once great accomplishment but as a powerful idea."
A memorial bench dedicated in Pendleton's honor is located in the De Anza Cove section of Mission Bay Park in San Diego.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pendleton Jr., Clarence M.
1930 births
1988 deaths
20th-century American educators
Politicians from Louisville, Kentucky
Politicians from Washington, D.C.
Politicians from Baltimore
Politicians from San Diego
Howard University alumni
Howard University faculty
California Republicans
United States Commission on Civil Rights members
American civil rights activists
African-American government officials
Activists from California
Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.) alumni
20th-century African-American educators