Clifton Reginald Wharton Sr. (May 11, 1899 – April 25, 1990) was an American
diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
, and the first
African American diplomat to become an ambassador by rising through the ranks of the
Foreign Service rather than by political appointment such as
Frederick Douglass.
[U.S. Department of State: "Clifton R. Wharton: U.S. Postage Stamps Commemorate Distinguished American Diplomats"]
/ref> He also became the first black Foreign Service Officer to become chief of a diplomatic mission.
Life
Born in Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
, Wharton received his law degree in 1920 and an advanced law degree in 1923 from Boston University School of Law
Boston University School of Law (Boston Law or BU Law) is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top law schools in the United States and considered an eli ...
. He practiced in Boston before joining the United States State Department as a law clerk in the Career United States Foreign Service. Wharton went on to be Vice Consul in Monrovia (1927–1929), Consul in Las Palmas (1932–1938), Minister to Romania (1958–1961) and Ambassador to Norway (1961–1964).
Wharton died in Phoenix, Arizona.
Wharton was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...
fraternity.
In 1978, the State Department had a day honoring him and diplomat Lucile Atcherson Curtis, who was the first woman in what became the U.S. Foreign Service
The United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system used by the diplomatic service of the United States federal government, under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of over 13,000 professionals carryi ...
.
Family
He married Harriet Banks; they had three children.Deputy Secretary of State
The deputy secretary of state of the United States is the principal deputy to the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state. The current deputy secretary of state is Wendy Ruth Sherman, serving since April 2021 under United States Secre ...
during the Clinton administration
Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...
, and before that as president of Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
.
See also
* Rogers Act
The Rogers Act of 1924, often referred to as the Foreign Service Act of 1924, is the legislation that merged the United States diplomatic and consular services into the United States Foreign Service. It defined a personnel system under which the U ...
References
External links
*https://web.archive.org/web/20150724035343/http://diplomacy.state.gov/discoverdiplomacy/explorer/peoplehistorical/170207.htm
1899 births
1990 deaths
Ambassadors of the United States to Romania
Ambassadors of the United States to Norway
Boston University School of Law alumni
African-American diplomats
United States Foreign Service personnel
People from Baltimore
20th-century African-American people
20th-century American diplomats
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