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Bio-Sketch
Parren
J. Mitchell
Retired
Member of U.S. House of Representatives
Every
Black elected official must have a simple credo: "I am
elected from a mixed district, part White, part Black; I will
serve all the people. But I will give my priority to Black
people and the poor because they need more."
The
above statement exemplifies the political philosophy of Parren
J. Mitchell, retired U.S. Representative from Maryland's Seventh
District.
Championing
the causes of the Black and poor comes naturally to Mitchell. In
1950, Mitchell filed suit to compel the University of Maryland
to enroll him as its first Black graduate student. There, he
completed his master's degree in sociology and was admitted to
the school's honor society. After receiving his master's degree,
Mitchell returned to teach at his alma mater, Morgan State
University.
As
Executive Director of Baltimore's anti-poverty program in the
late 60s, Mitchell lobbied Washington for his agency's programs.
Also during the l960s, he served as Executive Secretary for the
Maryland Human Relations Commission and played the pivotal role
in the enactment and implementation of Maryland's statewide
Public Accommodations Law.
In
1970, he was elected Maryland's first Black Congressman.
In
1976, Mitchell attached to President Carter's $4 billion Public
Works Bill an amendment that compelled state, county and
municipal governments seeking federal grants to set aside 10
percent of the money to retain minority firms as contractors,
subcontractors; $625 million (15%) going to legitimate minority
firms.
He
also introduced the legislation which, in 1976, became Public
Law 95-507, that requires proposals from contractors to spell
out their goals for awarding contracts to minority
subcontractors. This law potentially provides access to billions
of dollars for minority businesses. His amendment to the $71
billion Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982, required
a 10 percent set-aside for disadvantaged businesses.
He
served as: Whip-At-Large; Senior Member of the House Banking,
Finance and Urban Affairs Committee, Chairman of its
Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy; Chairman of the House
Small Business
Committee,
Chairman of its Task Force on Minority Enterprise; Chairman of
the Subcommittee on Housing, Minority Enterprise and Economic
Development of the Congressional Black Caucus; a Member of the
Joint Economic Committee; and on the Presidential Commission on
the National Agenda for the Eighties.
In
1980, he founded The Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense
and Education Fund, Inc. ("MBELDEF") and presently
serves as Chairman of the Board.
He
holds a total of 14 Honorary Degrees, i.e., five Doctor of
Humane Letters; five Doctor of Law; and four Doctor of Social
Sciences.
National
and local consumer groups; civil rights groups; business and
economic groups; fraternities; sororities; religious groups; and
educational organizations have presented more than 3000 awards
to Mr. Mitchell. He has received awards from such diverse groups
as: The National Alliance of Black Educators; the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference; the Morehouse College Alumni;
the Joint Center for Political Studies; the Greater New Haven
(Connecticut) Business and Professional Association; the
Minority Contractors of Dayton, Ohio, the Alaska Black Caucus;
and the Consumer Federation of America.
It
has been said of him, "Parren's emotions are those of a
Patrick Henry . . . he didn't say give me liberty later . . .
Parren is one of God's angry men."
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Parren
Mitchell Bio Chronology
1922 (April 29) -- Born in
Baltimore to Clarence M. Mitchell Sr. and Elsie Davis Mitchell.
His father was a waiter at the Rennert Hotel in downtown
Baltimore.
1933 -- His brother Clarence
returned home from Somerset County, where a black man had been
lynched.
1940 -- Graduated from Frederick
Douglass High School and then served in the Army during World
War II, winning a Purple Heart for wounds suffered in Italy.
1950 -- Earned a Bachelor of Arts
degree from Morgan State College. Filed suit to compel the
University of Maryland to enroll him as its first Black graduate
student.
1952 -- Received M.A. degree in
sociology from the University of Maryland and returned to teach
at Morgan State.
1954 – 1957 -- Supervisor of
probation work for the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City
1963 - 1965 -- Executive director of
the Maryland Human Relations Commission in the Tawes
administration,
1965 – 1968 -- Selected by Mayor
McKeldin as executive director of the Baltimore Community Action
Agency (CAA), the local arm of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War
on Poverty. The link between the militant civil rights groups
and the city administration according to the Sun newspaper
during three days and four nights of violence that was quelled
after thousands of Army and National Guard troops were sent into
the city.
Resigned as head of the CAA in July 1968,
complaining that the Mayor D'Alesandro had assigned him a
subordinate role in the anti-poverty effort, a step the mayor
blamed on federal government dictates.
1968 -- Rejoined the Morgan State
faculty and made his first run for Congress, a bid to unseat
Samuel N. Friedel, who had represented the heavily Jewish and
Democratic 7th District since 1953. In the Democratic
primary, received 15,000 votes, falling 5,500 short of Mr.
Friedel. Political experts were impressed.
1970 -- Defeated Mr. Friedel by 38
votes in the 40 percent black district as a third major
candidate, a Jewish state senator, drained away votes from the
popular incumbent. Became Maryland's first Black Congressman to
the first of his eight terms in Congress. Reelected to seven
succeeding Congresses from the 7th District through 1987.
1976 -- Attached to President
Carter's $4 billion Public Works Bill an amendment that
compelled state, county and municipal governments seeking
federal grants to set aside 10 percent of the money to retain
minority firms as contractors, subcontractors; $625 million
(15%) going to legitimate minority firms.
1976 -- Introduced the legislation
which became Public Law 95-507, that requires proposals from
contractors to spell out their goals for awarding contracts to
minority subcontractors. This law potentially provides access to
billions of dollars for minority businesses. His amendment
1977 –
Appeared on the cover of Black Enterprise
1978 --
Ebony
magazine feature listing Mitchell among the 100 most influential
African-Americans
1980 -- Founded The Minority
Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. ("MBELDEF")
and presently serves as Chairman of the Board.
1982 -- Amended the $71 billion
Surface Transportation Assistance Act of required a 10 percent
set-aside for disadvantaged businesses.
1984 -- Clarence Mitchell
died
1985 – Announced, at age 63, he
would not seek re-election for a ninth term in Congress.
1987 -- Nephews Clarence M. Mitchell III and his
brother, Michael B. Mitchell, were convicted in federal court in
of accepting $50,000 from Wedtech to obstruct an investigation
of the company by the House Small Business Committee, which
Representative Mitchell headed
1989 – Gave speech
at a Baltimore
teachers union observance of Dr. King's birthday and stated "If
you believe in fighting racism, you make a commitment for the
rest of your life."
2007 (Monday, May 28) at the
age of 85, passed away. On June 5th more than
1,000 people paid their last respects to the Congressman at the
St. James' Episcopal Church in West Baltimore
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*
(a)
1999, 2000 MBELDEF -- The Minority Business Enterprise Legal
Defense and Education Fund, Inc. ("MBELDEF") is a
national, non-profit, public interest law firm founded in 1980
by former U.S. Congressman Parren J. Mitchell (D-MD, retired).
MBELDEF's litigation activities are intended to achieve
equity and fairness in the marketplace on behalf of minority
business enterprises ("MBE's").
Source:
http://www.mbeldef.org/index.htm
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The End of Anger
A New Generation's Take on Race and Rage
By Ellis Cose
From a venerated and bestselling voice
on American life comes a contemporary
look at the decline of black rage; the
demise of white guilt; and the
intergenerational shifts in how blacks
and whites view, and interact with, each
other. In the heady aftermath of
President Obama's election, conventional
wisdom suggested that the bitter, angry,
and destructive elements of
discrimination were ebbing at last and
America was becoming a postracial
nation. . . . Weaving material from
myriad interviews as well as two large
and ambitious surveys that he
conducted—one of black Harvard MBAs and
the other of graduates of A Better
Chance, a program offering elite
educational opportunities to thousands
of young people of color since 1963—Cose
offers an invaluable portrait of
contemporary America that attempts to
make sense of what a people do when the
dream, for some, is finally within reach
as one historical era ends and another
begins.—Ecco, 2011
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Obama and
Black Americans: the Paradox of Hope—By Gary
Younge—But for all the ways black America has felt
better about itself and looked better to others, it
has not actually fared better. In fact, it has been
doing worse. The economic gap between black and
white has grown since Obama took power. Under his
tenure black unemployment, poverty and foreclosures
are at their highest levels for at least a decade.
Millions of
black kids may well aspire to the presidency now
that a black man is in the White House. But such a
trajectory is less likely for them now than it was
under Bush. Herein lies what is at best a paradox
and at worst a contradiction within Obama’s core
base of support. The very group most likely to
support him—black Americans—is the same group that
is doing worse under him.—TheNation
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Here lies Jim Crow: Civil rights in Maryland
By C. Fraser Smith
Though he lived throughout much of the South—and even worked his way into parts of the North for a time—Jim Crow was conceived and buried in Maryland. From Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's infamous decision in the Dred Scott case to Thurgood Marshall's eloquent and effective work on Brown v. Board of Education, the battle for black equality is very much the story of Free State women and men. Here, Baltimore Sun columnist C. Fraser Smith recounts that tale through the stories, words, and deeds of famous, infamous, and little-known Marylanders. He traces the roots of Jim Crow laws from Dred Scott to Plessy v. Ferguson and describes the parallel and opposite early efforts of those who struggled to establish freedom and basic rights for African Americans.
Following the historical trail of evidence, Smith relates latter-day examples of Maryland residents who trod those same steps, from the thrice-failed attempt to deny black people the vote in the early twentieth century to nascent demonstrations for open access to lunch counters, movie theaters, stores, golf courses, and other public and private institutions—struggles that occurred decades before the now-celebrated historical figures strode onto the national civil rights scene. Smith's lively account includes the grand themes and the state's major players in the movement—Frederick Douglass, Harriett Tubman, Thurgood Marshall, and Lillie May Jackson, among others.—and also tells the story of the struggle via several of Maryland's important but relatively unknown men and women—such as Gloria Richardson, John Prentiss Poe, William L. "Little Willie" Adams, and Walter Sondheim—who prepared Jim Crow's grave and waited for the nation to deliver the body.—Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008 |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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updated 6 April 2010 |
