Joseph S. Clark Jr.

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Joseph S. Clark Jr.
Mayor of Philadelphia
In office
January 7, 1952 – January 2, 1956
Preceded byBernard Samuel
Succeeded byRichardson Dilworth
Personal details
Born
Joseph Sill Clark Jr.

(1901-10-21)October 21, 1901
United States of America
Branch/serviceUnited States Army Air Forces
Years of service1941 – 1945
RankColonel
Battles/warsWorld War II

Joseph Sill Clark Jr. (October 21, 1901 – January 12, 1990) was an American writer, lawyer and politician. A member of the

Mayor of Philadelphia from 1952 to 1956 and as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1957 to 1969. Clark was the only Unitarian Universalist elected to a major office in Pennsylvania in the modern era.[1]

The son of attorney and tennis player

Republican political machine. After serving in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II
, Clark won election as city controller in 1949. In this capacity, he investigated and publicized scandals in the city government. In 1951, Clark won election as Mayor of Philadelphia, becoming the first Democrat to do so since 1884. As mayor, he sought to reduce corruption in city government and created low-income housing projects.

After one term as mayor, Clark narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Senator James H. Duff in the 1956 Senate election. Clark earned a reputation as a strong supporter of civil rights and worked to appoint liberal committee members from his perch on the Democratic Steering Committee. Clark narrowly won re-election in 1962 but was defeated in 1968 by Congressman Richard Schweiker. His defeat is generally credited to his support of gun control and opposition to the Vietnam War. After leaving office, Clark became a professor at Temple University.

Early life and education

One of two children, Joseph Clark was born in

Chestnut Hill Academy.[5] He then attended Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where he played on the school's baseball and football teams.[6] He graduated from Middlesex in 1919 as class valedictorian.[7]

Clark studied at Harvard University, where he was a member of the baseball and track teams.[8] He won several prizes, including the John Harvard scholarship for high academic distinction.[6] He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude in 1923 with a Bachelor of Science degree in government, history and economics.[2] Clark, who had spent time at the Bar B C Dude Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, became a partner in the nearby Double Diamond Dude Ranch in 1924.[9] He later returned to Philadelphia and enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall and editor of the Law Review.[5] He earned his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1926.[7]

Early career

In December 1926, Clark was admitted to the bar and became an associate with his father's law firm of Clark, Clark, McCarthy and Wagner.

committeeman.[8] In 1928, he left the Republican Party and became a Democrat, supporting Al Smith in that year's presidential election.[2]

During the 1928 election, Clark founded the Democratic Warriors Club with

reform movement to end corruption in city government, which was long controlled by a Republican machine.[4] Clark was an unsuccessful candidate for the Philadelphia City Council in 1933, with Dilworth serving as his campaign manager.[6] The following year, he joined the firm of Dechert, Bok, Smith and Clark, and continued to practice law for seven years.[8] He managed Dilworth's unsuccessful campaign for the Pennsylvania State Senate in 1934.[2] From 1934 to 1935, he served as Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania.[7] In this capacity, he engaged in trial work related to the closing of banks.[6]

In August 1941, Clark enlisted in the

China Burma India Theater as deputy chief of staff to General George E. Stratemeyer.[2] He briefly served as acting chief of staff to General Stratemeyer, and attained the rank of colonel on October 15, 1943.[6] He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Legion of Merit, and Military Order of the British Empire.[8] Returning to the United States in September 1945, he accompanied General Stratemeyer to Washington, D.C., where he helped design plans to defend the nation against air raids.[6]

Following his return to Philadelphia, Clark resumed his political activity and his partnership with Dilworth. He was manager of Dilworth's unsuccessful campaign for

city treasurer by a similar margin.[8] Serving from 1950 to 1952, Clark investigated and publicized scandals within the Republican-controlled city government, including the embezzlement of tax money and court funds, imprisonment of the fire marshal, falsification of records, and corruption in the water bureau.[6] Many officials were impeached or indicted as a result, and nine even committed suicide.[8]

Mayor of Philadelphia

Clark announced his candidacy for

he defeated Poling by 124,700 votes.[8] With his victory, Clark became the first Democrat to be elected mayor of Philadelphia since 1884;[5]
as of 2021, no member of another party has since held the office.

Clark was inaugurated as the 90th Mayor of Philadelphia on January 7, 1952.

Penn Center and the Philadelphia waterfront.[10]

In 1952, Clark launched a television series Tell It To the Mayor in which he and other city officials answered questions about his administration.

Democratic nomination in the 1952 presidential election.[6] In 1955, he chartered the Food Distribution Center Corporation to create a new food market, and established the Urban Traffic and Transportation Board to design a mass transit system.[11]

In 1956, Clark became the first politician to receive the Philadelphia Award for promoting good governance in the city.[12]

Clark, who had promised to serve as mayor for only one term, did not run for reelection. As of 2021, only one other person has since served just one term as mayor: William J. Green III, who was elected in 1979.

A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the

University of Illinois at Chicago ranked Clark as the twenty-second-best American big-city mayor to have served between the years 1820 and 1993.[13]

U.S. Senate

Clark announced his candidacy for the

governor, in the general election.[14] During the campaign, Clark ran on a liberal platform which included support for increasing the minimum wage, expanding Social Security, and repealing the Taft–Hartley Act.[15] He also criticized President Dwight D. Eisenhower on international and domestic matters, and attacked Senator Duff's poor attendance record.[15] On November 6, 1956, Clark narrowly defeated Duff by a margin of 50.1%-49.7%, winning by less than 18,000 out of 4.5 million votes cast.[16] At the same time in the presidential election, President Eisenhower, who by this time claimed his farm in Gettysburg as his permanent address, carried Pennsylvania by well over 600,000 votes.[15]

During his early tenure in the Senate, Clark earned a reputation as a strong supporter of

Manpower Development and Training Act and the Area Redevelopment Act.[5] He often clashed with Lyndon B. Johnson while the latter was Senate Majority Leader.[8] In 1962, Clark was re-elected to a second term after narrowly defeating Congressman James E. Van Zandt by a 51%-49% margin.[17]

Clark was appointed to the

Italian American community, who largely voted against Clark in 1968.[18] A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he voted for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 but soon became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, condemning the war's escalation in 1965.[4]

In 1968, Clark was defeated for re-election to a third term by Congressman

1968 Gun Control Act, and opposition to the Vietnam War.[15] His campaign chairman in 1968 was Bucks County author James A. Michener.[4]

Later life and death

Following his departure from the Senate, Clark served as a professor at

W. Thacher Longstreth in the general election.[2] He was chairman of independent candidate Charles Bowser's campaign in 1975.[2] He was an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.[20][21]

Clark died at his home in Chestnut Hill, at age 88.[5] His remains were cremated[7] and interred at St. Thomas' Church Cemetery in Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania.[22]

Personal life and family

Joseph Clark was descended from a prominent financial family in Philadelphia. His great-grandfather,

Philadelphia Corinthian Yacht Club and father of Edward III; Clarence Munroe Clark, a noted tennis player like his brother; and Percy Clark, a lawyer and noted cricketer.[23] Percy's daughter Mary was married to Nelson Rockefeller from 1930 to 1962, before he served as Vice President of the United States.[citation needed
]

Clark's paternal grandmother was the daughter of Joseph and Jane (née Todhunter) Sill, who were social reformers and leaders in

antebellum Philadelphia's benevolence movement.[24] Joseph Sill served as secretary, vice president, and president of the St. George Society of Philadelphia, an aid organization for English immigrants.[24]

Clark was married three times and had two children. He and his first wife, Elizabeth Story Jenks, had one son, Joseph S. Clark III.[4] He was married to his second wife, Noel Hall, from April 1935 until their divorce in September 1967.[25] He and Noel had one daughter, Noel Clairborne Clark.[6] Two weeks after his divorce, Clark married Iris Cole Richey, a former editor of the Pennsylvania Manual, to whom he remained married until his death.[26]

Writings

  • The Senate Establishment (1963)
  • Congress: The Sapless Branch (1964)

References

  1. ^ a b Vetter, Herbert (2007). Notable American Unitarians, 1936-1961. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Square Library.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Neal, Steve (1990-01-15). "Political Giant Joseph Clark Dead At 88". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  3. ^ "Joseph Clark Sr., An Attorney, Dies". The New York Times. 1956-04-16. Joseph Sill Clark Sr., father of former Philadelphia Mayor Joseph Sill Clark Jr. and the city's oldest practicing attorney, died yesterday at his home in Chestnut Hill here. He was 94 years old. ...
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Beers, Paul B. (1980). Pennsylvania Politics Today and Yesterday: The Tolerable Accommodation. Pennsylvania State University.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Fowler, Glenn (1990-01-16). "Joseph S. Clark Is Dead at 88; Ex-Mayor and Reformist Senator". The New York Times.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Current Biography. Vol. XXIII. H. W. Wilson Company. 1952.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h "CLARK, Joseph Sill, (1901 - 1990)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  8. ^
    JSTOR 987153
    .
  9. ^ "Chapter 14: The Dude Wranglers". A Place Called Jackson Hole: A Historic Resource Study of Grand Teton National Park. National Park Service. August 12, 2008. Retrieved April 19, 2011.
  10. ^
    JSTOR 10.5215/pennlega.11.2.0024
    .
  11. ^ a b c d Mayer, Michael S. (2010). The Eisenhower Years. New York: Facts On File, Inc.
  12. ^ Neal, Steve (15 January 1990). "Political Giant Joseph Clark Dead At 88". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  13. ISBN 0-271-01876-3
    .
  14. ^ Weart, William G. (1956-10-28). "1 SEATS DISPUTED IN PENNSYLVANIA". The New York Times.
  15. ^ a b c d Kennedy, John J. (2006). Pennsylvania Elections: Statewide Contests from 1950-2004. University Press of America.
  16. ^ "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 6, 1956" (PDF). Clerk of the United States House of Representatives.
  17. ^ "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 6, 1962" (PDF). Clerk of the United States House of Representatives.
  18. ^ Weaver Jr., Warren (1968-10-27). "CLOSE RACE SEEN IN PENNSYLVANIA". The New York Times.
  19. ^ "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 5, 1968" (PDF). Clerk of the United States House of Representatives.
  20. ^ "Joseph Sill Clark". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
  21. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
  22. ^ "Joseph Sill Clark". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  23. ^ a b c "Clark and Madeira Family Papers, 1820 - 1942". University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on 2010-07-02. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
  24. ^
    JSTOR 20094012
    .
  25. ^ "Milestones". TIME. 1967-09-08. Archived from the original on December 15, 2008.
  26. ^ "Milestones". TIME. 1967-09-22. Archived from the original on December 15, 2008.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Philadelphia
1952–1956 		Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 3) from Pennsylvania
1957–1969
Served alongside: Edward Martin, Hugh Scott 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by
1951
 Succeeded by
Preceded by
Class 3)
1956, 1962, 1968
 Succeeded by
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