The Papers of Clarence Mitchell Jr., Volume III — (2008)

NAACP Labor Secretary and Director of the NAACP Washington Bureau

Edited by Denton L. Watson

"Clarence Mitchell, Jr., for decades waged in the halls of Congress a stubborn, resourceful and historic campaign for social justice. The integrity of this ‘101st senator’ earned him the respect of friends and adversaries alike. His brilliant advocacy helped translate into law the protests and aspirations of millions consigned for too long to second-class citizenship. The hard-won fruits of his labors have made America a better and stronger nation."

President Jimmy Carter — Citation on the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented June 9, 1980

Born in Baltimore in 1911, Clarence Mitchell Jr. led the struggle for passage of 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.

Volume III documents the extent to which Mitchell, as labor secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and then director of the NAACP's Washington Bureau, made his program for the creation of a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission central to his quest for presidential leadership in civil rights.

As a result of Mitchell's work in this period, President Truman in 1948 issued an order barring discrimination in federal employment and created a board to review discrimination complaints. The Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954-a ruling that in effect said segregation and discrimination were one-cleared the path for Mitchell to intensify his fight for passage of civil rights laws that were grounded in the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Volume III is an invaluable reference in tracing Mitchell's greatest contribution to the strengthening of American democracy by getting Congress, the courts, and the executive branch to join together in upholding the constitutional rights of African Americans.