James E. Clyburn

1940—

Legislator

Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1992, James E. Clyburn was South Carolina's first black Representative in Congress since the Reconstruction era in the late nineteenth century. Graduating from college in the early 1960s, Clyburn became involved in the civil rights movement, later making a career for himself in the administration of government anti-poverty programs. He was elected by his African-American peers in Congress to head the Congressional Black Caucus beginning in 1999. He was one of the leaders who successfully delivered an unprecedented Southern black voter turnout in the 1998 national elections, making possible a series of unexpected victories for Democratic candidates in South Carolina and across the rest of the South. He broke new ground in 2006, when he was elected House Majority Whip, the highest Congressional post held by an African American at that time.

James E. Clyburn was born on July 21, 1940, in Sumter, South Carolina, in the lowlands east of Columbia, the state capital. His father was a minister. Clyburn attended South Carolina State College, one of the South's premier historically black educational institutions, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1962. Later, he worked in Congress to secure funds for the renovation of historically black colleges, which suffered financially as formerly segregated Southern state university systems opened to African-American students. After college Clyburn embarked on a career as a high school history teacher, but soon the political change that was sweeping the South began to have an impact on the direction of his life.

The so-called "Great Society" initiative of President Lyndon Johnson included several new programs designed to alleviate poverty in Southern black communities. For educated young Southerners like Clyburn, one effect was to open up new job opportunities in the administration of these government initiatives. Clyburn was named director of a program called the Neighborhood Youth Corps in 1966, and then became executive director of the South Carolina Commission for Farm Workers in 1968. He married Emily England, from the town of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, and the family grew to include three daughters.

Elected to Congress

Clyburn's career was advanced considerably in the 1970s when he entered the inner circle of South Carolina Governor John West. He became the governor's Special Assistant for Human Resources Development in 1971 and, with future political ambitions on his mind, enrolled in the University of South Carolina Law School from 1972 through 1974. That year Clyburn was named a South Carolina Human Affairs Commissioner, remaining in the post through 1992 and amassing a formidable network of political allies. While serving as Human Affairs Commissioner, Clyburn ran for the office of Secretary of State twice, losing by small margins both times but building name recognition and serving notice that he would be a force to be reckoned with in the future.

In 1992 Clyburn declared his candidacy for the U.S. Congress in South Carolina's black-majority Sixth District, an irregularly-shaped unit that includes parts of the cities of Charleston and Columbia, most of Orangeburg (home of Clyburn's alma mater, now renamed South Carolina State University), and parts of the state's tobacco-growing areas. He faced four opponents, all black, in the Democratic primary, the victor of which was virtually assured of election in November in this heavily Democratic district. Clyburn reaped the benefits of his years of statewide exposure, winning the primary with 56 percent of the vote. He won handily and was returned to Congress in each general election through 2008, winning in that year with more than two-thirds of the vote.

In Congress Clyburn established a liberal voting record, like most of his fellow African-American members, the vast majority of whom are Democrats. He worked to resist the attacks on affirmative action that surfaced in the Republican-dominated Congresses of the 1990s. Early on, Clyburn favored funding for enterprise zones, a program that offered tax breaks to corporations that located their operations in economically depressed areas. He broke with Democratic liberals, however, by supporting measures to require a balanced federal budget and by favoring term limits for those serving in office.

Became State and National Democratic Luminary

The 1998 Congressional elections, coming in the midst of the national trauma surrounding the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, were hotly contested everywhere, and nowhere more so than in South Carolina, where the veteran seventy-six-year-old Democratic Senator Ernest Hollings faced a stiff challenge from Representative Bob Inglis, a conservative Republican with whom Clyburn had clashed in the past. Clyburn emerged as one of the leaders in an unprecedented get-out-the-vote effort, crisscrossing the state in support of Hollings and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Hodges.

At a Glance …

Born July 21, 1940, in Sumter, SC; son of a minister; married Emily England (a librarian), 1961; children: Mignon, Angela, and Jennifer. Politics: Democrat. Education: Graduated from South Carolina State College, 1962; attended University of South Carolina Law School, 1972-74.

Career: Social studies teacher, C. A. Brown High School, Charleston, SC, early 1960s. Director, Neighborhood Youth Corps, 1966-68; executive director, South Carolina Commission for Farm Workers, 1968-71; special assistant to South Carolina Governor for Human Resource Development, 1971-74; South Carolina Human Affairs Commissioner, 1974-92. U.S. Representative, South Carolina Sixth District, 1992—; elected chair, Congressional Black Caucus, 1998; vice chair, House Democratic Caucus, 2002-06; House Majority Whip, 2006—.

Memberships: NAACP, life member; Omega Psi Phi, Allen University Board of Governors.

Awards: Named one of Ebony's Most Influential Black Americans, 2006; NAACP "Barrier Breaker" award, 2008; Lifetime Achievement Award, National Minority Quality Forum, 2008; Louis E. Martin Great American Award, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2008.

Addresses: Office—2135 Rayburn House Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20515.

Clyburn's efforts bore fruit. Although South Carolina has been considered one of the nation's most conservative and Republican states, both Hollings and Hodges emerged victorious, and Clyburn could rightly claim a large share of the credit for their victories. Quoted in the New York Times, Clyburn said Hodges was "a smart guy," who "knows where his margin of victory was." He continued, "I don't think there's going to be any problem getting our concerns addressed." At the same time, Clyburn was diplomatic. Declining to speak in terms of "demands," a word that had surfaced in connection with similar black-led victories across the South, Clyburn offered this advice in the same interview: "Let's not be too pointed in our language. We can do this without using those inflammatory terms."

Clyburn was elected without opposition to the post of chair of the Congressional Black Caucus after the 1998 elections in which he played such a crucial role. "He's a conciliator," said Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) in an interview with the Associated Press. "He will bring the caucus together and at the same time work well with all Democrats." Clyburn promised to work toward the appointment of more black federal judges, particularly in the South; to address environmental concerns in minority residential areas; to maintain affirmative action programs; and to promote the sampling technique, thought by some to enumerate minorities more accurately, in the national census set for the year 2000.

Clyburn continued to rise in the ranks in Congress. In 2002 he was elected vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, defeating two other contenders. He became the first African-American House Majority Whip in 2006, the third highest rank in that chamber, and was widely recognized as one of the real powers behind the scenes in the House. Back home in South Carolina, Clyburn was larger than life. His name was placed on everything from a golf center to a bus station to a pedestrian overpass. In 2007 Clyburn became the first African American to address a joint session of the South Carolina General Assembly. He used that opportunity to comment on the state's troublesome race relations history. As reported by Kevin Chappell in Jet, Clyburn said, "There is so much we can accomplish in South Carolina by joining our efforts and striving to achieve a larger vision for the people of our state."

In 2008 Clyburn received the Louis E. Martin Great American Award from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies for his "lifelong dedication to racial justice, his efforts to bridge racial and ethnic divides and his steady commitment to improving social and economic conditions for people of color." That description effectively sums up the career of one of the pre-eminent African-American politicians of this era.

Sources

Books

Barone, Michael, and Richard E. Cohen, The Almanac of American Politics, 2008 ed., National Journal Group, 2007.

Periodicals

Houston Chronicle, June 8, 2008, p. 28.

Jet, December 7, 1998, p. 4; April 23, 2007, p. 11; April 28, 2008, p. 31.

New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 18, 1998, p. A12.

New York Times, April 25, 2008, p. A24.

The Oregonian (Portland, OR), November 6, 1998, p. A16.

Spartanburg Herald-Journal, June 2, 1993.

Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC), June 16, 2008.

U.S. News and World Report, March 5, 2007, p. 42.

Washington Post, May 12, 1998, p. A17.

Online

"James E. Clyburn Biography," United States Congressman James E. Clyburn,http://clyburn.house.gov/clyburn-biography.cfm (accessed November 15, 2008).

—James M. Manheim and Bob Jacobson