View source for Clennon Washington King Jr.

{{short description|American politician (1920–2000)}}
{{infobox person
|name=Clennon Washington King Jr.
|birth_date={{birth date|1920|7|18}}
|death_date={{death date and age|2000|2|12|1920|7|18}}
|nationality=American
|occupation=Politician
|known_for=Second African American man to run for [[president of the United States]]
|parents=[[Clennon Washington King Sr.]]<br>Margaret Allegra Slater
|relatives=[[Chevene Bowers King]] (brother)
}}
'''Clennon Washington King Jr.''' (July 18, 1920 &ndash; February 12, 2000) was the second [[African-American]] man to run for the office of [[President of the United States]] after [[George Edwin Taylor]], and whose attempts at civil rights actions and running for office as a [[perennial candidate]] caused him to be nicknamed "The Black [[Don Quixote]]."<ref>Evers-Williams, Myrlie and Manning Marable, ''The Autobiography Of Medgar Evers: A Hero's Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches''</ref>
==Family==
He was the eldest son of seven. His father, [[Clennon Washington King Sr.]],  was a [[civil rights]] [[activism|activist]], [[Tuskegee Institute]] student and [[chauffeur]] of [[Booker T. Washington]]. His mother was Margaret Allegra Slater.  His brother, lawyer [[Chevene Bowers King|C. B. King]], posthumously had a United States Courthouse in [[Albany, Georgia]] named after him,<ref>[http://exodusnews.com/HISTORY/History015.htm "U.S. Representative John Lewis (Ga.-D) and Other Civil Rights Vets to help Dedicate 1st U.S. Courthouse named for a Black Man in former Jim Crow South" October 24, 2002] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050207024034/http://www.exodusnews.com/HISTORY/History015.htm |date=February 7, 2005 }}</ref> his brother Slater King was a successful real estate broker,  and his youngest brother Dr. Preston King received a pardon from President [[Bill Clinton]],<ref>[http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2729 "Preston King" ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'']</ref> both actions related to their civil rights activism.
==Attempts at integration==
In 1957, he served as a history professor at [[Alcorn State University]], but controversial letters to the editor and articles by him on the subject of [[racial integration]] led to students first boycotting the classes then threatening to boycott the school. School President J. R. Otis was fired as a consequence.<ref>All of this Is A Lie
[https://web.archive.org/web/20111019203934/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809204,00.html "One Way to Kill a College" ''Time'' March 18, 1957.]</ref>
In 1958, King tried to have one of his children integrate an all-white [[elementary school]] in [[Mississippi]], which would have been a first, but his wife and children fled.<ref name="Sansing1999">{{cite book|author1-link=David Sansing|last=Sansing|first=David G.|title=The University of Mississippi: A Sesquicentennial History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWI2k-Awuk8C&pg=PA277|access-date=9 December 2013|year=1999|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|location=Jackson, Miss.|isbn=978-1-57806-091-7|pages=276–278}}</ref>  That year he also applied to the all-white [[University of Mississippi]] and was committed to an [[Psychiatric hospital|asylum]] for trying to attend it;<ref name="Sansing1999"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/clennon-king/|title=Clennon King|first=Thomas John|last=Carey|website=Mississippi Encyclopedia|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-06}}</ref> his brother C.B. King was able to help free him.<ref name="Sansing1999"/> Additionally, Clennon King sought the support of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]; they met and MLK later wrote Governor [[James P. Coleman]] on behalf of Clennon King.<ref>[http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/papers/vol4/580607-002-To_J.P_%20Coleman.htm King Jr., Martin Luther "To James P. Coleman" ''The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr.: Volume IV: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957- December 1958]</ref>  Just two years later, [[James Meredith]] became the first black student at that university.
==1960 presidential campaign==
In 1960, King ran for president as candidate of the Independent Afro-American Party with Reginald Carter as his running mate, winning 1,485 votes in [[Alabama]], making him (by some accounts) the first [[List of African-American United States presidential and vice presidential candidates|African-American candidate for President]].<ref name=mt>[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1993-02-24/news/meet-the-candidate/print Semple, Kirk. "Meet the Candidate: The Rev. Clennon King is unique. Period."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717035010/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1993-02-24/news/meet-the-candidate/print/ |date=2012-07-17 }} ''[[Miami New Times]]'', February 24, 1993</ref> He was followed in 1964 by [[Clifton DeBerry]] of the established [[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Socialist Workers Party]], which had been running presidential candidates since 1948. [[George Edwin Taylor]] had previously run for president in 1904 as a [[write-in candidate]].<ref>''The Marshfield'' (Wisconsin) ''Times'', February 19, 1905, p.3; ''Daily Illinois State Journal'', January 29, 1905, p.1.</ref>
It's noted that King came in eleventh place of twelve candidates, well behind [[John F. Kennedy]]'s 34,220,984 votes.  However, it was the [[Constitution Party (United States, 1952)|Constitution Party]] ticket of [[Merritt Curtis]] and B. N. Miller that he beat, but that same party's different ticket of [[Charles L. Sullivan]] and Merritt Curtis solely in [[Texas]] came in seventh, and the Tax Cut Party ticket of [[Lawrence Joseph Sarsfield Daly|Lar Daly]] and Merritt Curtis was tenth.<ref>[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1960&minper=0&f=0&off=0&elect=0 "1960 Presidential General Election Results"]</ref>
He made two additional attempts for high offices.  In 1970 he attempted to join the Republican primary for the [[Georgia gubernatorial election, 1970|1970 gubernatorial election]] in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], a race in which his brother C.B. ran and lost to [[Jimmy Carter]] in the Democratic primary.  King wished to have the fee to be a candidate waived, which it was not, and so sought recourse in a lawsuit and then appeal (ultimately unsuccessful).<ref>{{cite news |title=Carl Sanders still target of candidates |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |date=August 10, 1970 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JtkvAAAAIBAJ&pg=6611,5750662 |access-date=January 17, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9608971324982752006 |title=King v. Fortson, 433 F. 2d 995 - Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit 1970 |access-date=2010-01-16}}</ref>  He stayed in the race as a [[write-in candidate]].<ref>{{cite news |title=State Democrats eye convention at Macon |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |date=October 6, 1970 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JtkvAAAAIBAJ&pg=6611,5750662 |access-date=January 17, 2010 }}</ref>  He received relatively few votes for governor and then began a new campaign, trying to run once more for president.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cleric Seeking Presidency |newspaper=Palm Beach Post |date=January 8, 1971 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jYIyAAAAIBAJ&pg=1509,3051254 |access-date=January 17, 2010 }}</ref>  This time the candidate of his Vote for Jesus Party, he again turned to a lawsuit in an attempt to waive ballot eligibility requirements this time for [[Delaware]], which was again unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7515647586812167821 |title=King v. Willis, 333 F. Supp. 670 - Dist. Court, D. Delaware 1971 |access-date=2010-01-16}}</ref>
==Attempt at integrating Jimmy Carter's church==
While pastor of the Divine Mission Church in Albany,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010713052244/http://www.nypress.com/13/10/news&columns/obit.cfm Yockel, Michael, "Clennon King, Nutty Racial Provocateur" ''New York Press'']</ref> the night before the [[1976 United States presidential election|1976 presidential election]], King tried to integrate the all-white [[Baptist]] church of candidate [[Jimmy Carter]] in [[Plains, Georgia]]. Rev. Bruce Edwards wished to admit him, but the [[deacon]]s of the church wanted to uphold the 1965 regulation barring "all Negroes and civil rights agitators"; they closed the church to services and recommended Edwards be fired. Eventually, Edwards resigned.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/tdgh-oct/oct31.htm |title=Jackson, Ed and Charly Pou "This Day in Georgia History" |access-date=2008-06-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708195710/http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/tdgh-oct/oct31.htm |archive-date=2008-07-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  Newspaper stories about the case also reported on King having been convicted for failure to provide [[child support]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Carter's church bars black again |newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard |date=November 8, 1976 |page=5A |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5MEUAAAAIBAJ&pg=5042,1850157 |access-date=January 17, 2010 }}</ref> something he'd been required to pay since 1960<ref>{{cite web |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2683847304894137886 |title=In re King, 474 P. 2d 983 - Cal: Supreme Court 1970 |access-date=2010-01-16}}</ref> but had not consistently done.<ref>{{cite news |title=Child Support Ordered |newspaper=Miami News |date=February 27, 1963 |page=1 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YKAyAAAAIBAJ&pg=4477,4500659 |access-date=January 17, 2010 }}</ref>
==Additional campaigns==
King ran for County Commissioner, City Commissioner and the [[Georgia House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] of the [[Georgia General Assembly]] simultaneously in 1979.  He was prosecuted for an advertisement placed in the ''[[Albany Journal]]'' offering "to pay within 30 days after his election $100 in cash to each August 8 voter who punches for him 3 times."<ref>{{cite news |title=Rev. Clennon King loses appeal of jail sentence |newspaper=Baltimore Afro-American |date=October 9, 1979 |page=20 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SKolAAAAIBAJ&pg=4063,2312328 |access-date=January 17, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=138790958384016420 |title=King v. State, 244 Ga. 536 - Ga: Supreme Court 197 |access-date=2010-01-16}}</ref>
In 1996, King ran for mayor of [[Miami]], [[Florida]]<ref>[http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/king2.html "Index to Politicians: King, C to D" ''The Political Graveyard'' March 10, 2005]</ref> where he had moved in 1979 as the candidate of the "Party of God."<ref>[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1996-07-25/news/the-king-who-would-be-mayor/ Semple, Kirk, "The King Who Would Be Mayor: His platform is his life. His campaign manager is God. His goal is to be your mayor." ''Miami New Times'' July 25, 1996]</ref>
==Death==
Following a career as "Reverend Rabbi" of the non-denominational Church of the Divine Mission he had founded in 1981 in Miami, Florida where he called himself "His Divine Blackness," he died in 2000 after being hospitalized for prostate cancer, leaving a dispute over ownership of the church.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/433/433.F2d.995.30070_1.html |title=Nielson, Kirk "Grand Theft, Church Ghetto redevelopment Miami style is anything but divine" ''Miami New Times'' October 30, 2003 |access-date=June 13, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522194249/http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/433/433.F2d.995.30070_1.html |archive-date=May 22, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
==References==
* ''Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement'' by Townsend Davis
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Clennon Washington Jr}}
[[Category:20th-century African-American politicians]]
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:Activists for African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:African-American candidates for President of the United States]]
[[Category:Alcorn State University faculty]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1960 United States presidential election]]