Background
Felton Grandison Clark was born on October 13, 1903 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. He was the son of Joseph Samuel Clark, the founder and first president of Southern University in Baton Rouge, and Octavia Eleanor Head.
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Felton Grandison Clark was born on October 13, 1903 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. He was the son of Joseph Samuel Clark, the founder and first president of Southern University in Baton Rouge, and Octavia Eleanor Head.
Clark received his early education at Baton Rouge College. In 1922 he graduated from Southern University (High School Department), with a two-year diploma. He received a B. A. (1924) from Beloit College in Wisconsin. His M. A. (1925) and Ph. D. (1933) were awarded by Columbia University.
Clark taught at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas (1925 - 1927), Southern University (1927 - 1930), and Howard University (1931 - 1933) until he returned to Southern in 1934 as dean of the university. In 1938, Clark succeeded his father as president of Southern University, a post he held until 1969. Clark's doctoral dissertation gave direction to his career as a university president. He wrote, "Despite the fact that the Negro is a member of a segregated, underprivileged, minority group in American life, his state-supported institutions of higher education have been externally controlled in accordance with principles designed for the group at large. " Among his several conclusions is the recommendation that "schemes for control of state-supported higher-education of Negroes should provide for direct representation of the Negro group. " Clark presided at the Land Grant College Presidents' Conference in 1940 and again in 1941 and championed the visibility of blacks at local, state, and national levels. Southern University grew and prospered during the thirty-one years of Clark's leadership. In 1938, Southern had 40 buildings, 139 faculty members, and more than 1, 500 students. Clark's major challenge came when he was placed in the difficult position of apparently quelling attempts at integration. On March 28, 1960, seven Southern University students protested segregation by sitting at the S. H. Kress variety-store lunch counter in Baton Rouge and were arrested. The next day brought more sit-ins and more arrests. To protest the arrests, thousands of students marched through the streets, and Clark, bowing to the demands of Governor Earl K. Long, suspended eighteen students. Hundreds of students withdrew from the university. Clark closed the university in 1962 for a short time because of racial conflict. Later, under Clark's guidance, the university was enlarged and Clark attracted a number of industrial firms to Louisiana and encouraged their managers to hire graduates of the university. While president of the university, Clark served on a number of national bodies. He was a member of several committees in the Education Department, including the National Conference of Problems of Education of Negroes (1934), the advisory committee of the Graduate Fellowship Section of the Division of Higher Education (1936 - 1937), an advisory panel on educational statistics (1954 - 1960), and the advisory committee on Federal Programs on Higher Education (1961 - 1963). He served as a consultant to the Educational Policies Commission of the Office of Education (1946 - 1950); he directed the National Survey of Vocational Education and Guidance of Negroes (1936 - 1938), and he was a member of the Board of Foreign Scholarships (1956 - 1963). Clark was also active, nationally and internationally, in the Young Men's Christian Association. He died in New Orleans.
While he was president the university added campuses at New Orleans in 1956 and in Shreveport in 1964. In addition, new programs and new degrees were added to the university's offerings. A law school offering the LL. B. was established in 1948, and ten years later a graduate-degree program was founded. At the time of Clark's retirement in 1969, the university's physical plant was valued at $52 million, it had an annual budget of $12 million, and more than 11, 000 students were enrolled.
Quotations: Clark said at his retirement, "Back in the early days, the students had a feeling the students should not stand as tall as they were capable. But now they see themselves as human beings endowed with all the qualities of any man. Up until recently, the Negro has had to think about food and shelter before astronomy and physics. You can't do much creating while digging a ditch. Now Negroes are working in the chemical labs instead of sweeping them out. "
Clark married Allene J. Knighten on August 22, 1958; they had no children.
