Rufus Early Clement was born on June 26, 1900 in Salisbury, North Carolina, United States. He was the son of George Clinton Clement, a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) church, and Emma Clarrissa Williams. When Clement was less than four months old, his family moved to Kentucky.
He was educated in Louisville public schools. Entering Livingstone College in North Carolina, he established an outstanding record as a scholar and athlete; Clement also took part-time jobs to help finance his education. In 1919 he graduated as valedictorian. In 1919 Clement entered Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston to prepare for the ministry. He also took graduate courses in history at Northwestern University. In 1922 he received a B. D. from Garrett and an M. A. from Northwestern. He was ordained a minister in the AMEZ church, joined the faculty of Livingstone College, and began work toward a doctorate in American history from Northwestern, which he received in 1930.
From 1922 to 1925 Clement was an instructor in history at Livingstone, and from 1925 to 1931 he was a professor of history and dean of the college. On weekends he conducted services in rural AMEZ congregations. At Livingstone, Clement proved himself an effective administrator. This quality, coupled with his articulateness, his ability to deal respectfully but unobsequiously with whites, and his academic credentials, made him a respected figure in black higher education. More significantly, his abilities brought him the good will of the agents of the white secular and religious philanthropies that played so crucial a role in funding and shaping southern black education. In 1931 Clement became dean of the newly opened Louisville Municipal College for Negroes. This institution, a segregated extension of the all-white University of Louisville, was created to quiet charges by Louisville's blacks that their taxes were used to support an educational institution that excluded them. Coming into a tense and volatile situation, Clement shaped the new school into a significant educational institution that was an asset to Louisville's black community. Simultaneously, his success pleased whites by muting black resentment against the University of Louisville without challenging its whites-only policy. Here again Clement demonstrated an ability to deal with whites and blacks without losing the respect of either. In 1929 Atlanta University had abolished its undergraduate college, reorganized itself as a graduate institution, and affiliated with two strong neighboring undergraduate schools, Spelman and Morehouse colleges. These changes were encouraged by the General Education Board, a Rockefeller philanthropy, in the hope that a new, comprehensive black center of higher education would emerge. In 1937 the board of trustees of Atlanta University, passing over several older, more distinguished black scholars and educators, invited Clement to become the school's sixth president. The qualities of the new president were seen as a key component in making this possible. Clement agreed to go to Atlanta, believing that the school's location, its strong alumni association, and the interest of the Rockefeller philanthropies provided him an opportunity to build an important institution. His efforts to recruit faculty, secure scholarship funds, expand the school's physical plant, and build the school's endowment forced him to devote much time to fundraising, something he did with skill and success. In addition to increasing the support from alumni groups, long-standing white supporters, and northern philanthropic agencies, Clement secured sizable new gifts from the southern white community, the Jewish community, and the federal government. These successes caused Time magazine to describe him in 1966 as one of the nation's most influential university presidents. Clement's most difficult moment came in 1944, when he forcibly retired W. E. B. Du Bois from the Atlanta faculty. Du Bois, a brilliant, volatile scholar, had, in an effort to retain special privileges, clashed with him. Clement's action was motivated as much by a need to demonstrate control as by his belief that the university could not allow preferential treatment to select faculty members in regard to pay and duties. Although the public outcry that followed never threatened Clement's position, to Du Bois and his supporters Clement's reputation as an educator was forever compromised. The respect of the Atlanta community for Clement was demonstrated in 1953, when he became the first black member of the city's board of education. His campaign succeeded because of the support he received from both black and white voters who were attracted by his prestige, credentials, and reputation as a racial moderate. Returned to office in every subsequent election, he was a member of the board at the time of his death. Although his position led to membership on the boards of numerous organizations, he was particularly active in the United Nations Association, the AMEZ church, the Georgia Conference on Interracial Cooperation, and the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He died in New York City, where he had gone to attend a meeting of his university's board of trustees.
During his thirty years as president (for part of this time he was also president of the Atlanta Center of Colleges) Clement turned Atlanta University into a major educational center. Under his leadership new advanced-degree programs were established in the arts and humanities, the social sciences, and the professions, and existing programs were strengthened.
A staunch Democrat, he served on the National Science Board and the State Department's Council on African Affairs during the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Clement was a handsome, athletic-looking man of great dignity and civility.
In 1920 married his fellow student Pearl Ann Johnson, the daughter of a plantation owner reputed to be the wealthiest black in Mississippi; they had one child.
