Allen Joseph Clarke This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. The Western High School-Duke Ellington School of the Arts Alumni Association: D. A. Clarke

   www.western-ellington.org/clar - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/1/2006   Last Visited: 5/12/2007

   His father, Allen Joseph Clarke, had died when David was an infant. His mother died when he was 16, and he went to live with an aunt at 12th & M Sts., N.W. at the age of 16 and entered Western High - Class of 1961. His life priorities were already set. He said often that, when he found at the age of 12 that he could not be a Congressional page because the District had no one in Congress to serve as a sponsor, he dedicated himself to home rule and to fighting social injustice of all kinds --- " ... rights movement was fighting was the same injustice that was denying my city and me home rule".
   
   Clarke's first inclination was to become a minister but after enrolling in Crozier Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, he managed to be assigned back to Washington where he went to work for Rev. Walter Fauntroy's D.C. Coalition of Conscience. He enrolled at Howard University Law School, graduating in 1969, and began working as a legal aide for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He soon had a reputation as a lawyer who would help any needy person. Clarke headed the SCLC's Washington office for two years before entering private practice in 1970.
   
   In 1974 he ran as a long shot candidate from Ward 1 for the D.C. City Council, and won, beginning his career as a hard-working, dedicated advocate for progressive legislation and for the people of his city. In 1982 he was elected Chairman of the City Council and was re-elected until 1990 when he ran for Mayor but lost.