Mitchell, Parren J., 1922-2007

<p>A lifelong activist who carried on his family’s tradition of public service, Parren Mitchell won election to the U.S. House in 1970, becoming the first African–American Representative from Maryland. As a Member of Congress, he earned a reputation as a dedicated and successful legislator who focused on improving the economic welfare of minorities residing in his Baltimore district and other urban centers. Mitchell’s passion and determination to extend the gains made in the civil rights movement—mainly through increased opportunities for minority–owned businesses—guided his eight terms in the House. After Mitchell’s death in May 2007, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland described him as “a true servant leader, never concerning himself about fame or fortune but, rather, devoting himself entirely to uplifting the people he represented.”</p>

<p>Parren James Mitchell was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 29, 1922, to Clarence Mitchell, Sr., a waiter, and Elsie Davis Mitchell. His older brother, Clarence Mitchell, Jr., became an influential and longtime lobbyist for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), serving as director of the Washington bureau from 1950 to 1978. In their youth, Clarence and Parren participated in demonstrations protesting segregation in Baltimore. This early activism fostered Parren Mitchell’s interest in promoting civil rights, which shaped much of his future legislative career. Mitchell’s political family tree also extended to his sister–in–law, Juanita Jackson Mitchell, who led the Maryland office of the NAACP, and a nephew who served in the Maryland state senate. After graduating from Douglass High School in Baltimore in 1940, Parren Mitchell joined the U.S. Army in 1942, serving as a commissioned officer and a company commander with the all–black 92nd Infantry Division. Mitchell earned a Purple Heart during his World War II service in Italy. Following his discharge from the armed services in 1946, Mitchell used funding from the 1944 GI Bill of Rights to enroll in Morgan State College in Baltimore. After graduating with an A.B. from Morgan State in 1950, he sued the University of Maryland for admission to the main campus in College Park. Mitchell became the school’s first African–American graduate student, earning an M.A. in sociology in 1952. After becoming an instructor of sociology at his undergraduate alma mater, Morgan State, from 1953 to 1954, Mitchell supervised probation work for the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City from 1954 to 1957. He was appointed the executive secretary of the Maryland Commission on Interracial Problems and Relations in 1963 and oversaw the implementation of the state’s new public accommodations law. Mitchell also led the Baltimore Community Action Agency, an antipoverty program, from 1965 to 1968, before returning to Morgan State as a professor of sociology and the assistant director of its Urban Affairs Institute. In 1969 Mitchell became president of Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc., a nonprofit fair housing organization. Mitchell never married and had no children.</p>

<p>Persuaded by local community groups to run for elective office, Mitchell believed he could best help the inner–city residents of Baltimore from Congress. Consequently, he entered the 1968 Democratic primary for the Maryland House seat that encompassed much of western Baltimore and its bordering suburbs. During the campaign, Mitchell accused the 16–year incumbent and chairman of the Committee on House Administration, Samuel Friedel, of losing touch with his constituents, saying, “He doesn’t understand the dimensions of the urban crisis, the mood of the people.” Mitchell ultimately lost his first election by 5,000 votes. Two years later, he again challenged Friedel in the Democratic primary. Mitchell countered his opponent’s political experience by accentuating his family’s civil rights activism and deep roots in Baltimore. In a grass–roots campaign that focused on his antiwar stance and record of community outreach, Mitchell won by a razor–thin margin of 38 votes. He went on to defeat his Republican opponent, lawyer Peter Parker, in the overwhelmingly Democratic district, becoming the first African American to represent the state of Maryland in Congress. Mitchell also became one of the first black Members to win election in a minority–black congressional district. After his Maryland district was redrawn in 1971, Mitchell rarely encountered any serious opposition in his bids for re–election. Once predominantly Jewish and African American, the district now encompassed much of Baltimore’s minority population; most of the white suburbs were eliminated. With this shift, the district became even safer for Democrats.</p>

<p>Parren James Mitchell was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 29, 1922, to Clarence M. Mitchell and Elsie Davis Mitchell. Though their street address was an alley, Mitchell, his brother Clarence, Jr., and sisters Elsie and Anna Mae were all strivers. Mitchell attended Garnet Elementary School, Booker T. Washington Junior High School, and graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1940. Mitchell joined the United States Army and served as a commissioned officer of the 92nd Infantry Division during World War II, receiving the Purple Heart. He graduated from Morgan State University with honors in 1950, but segregation barred Mitchell from attending the University of Maryland Graduate School. With advice from his brother (who was an official of the NAACP) and his brother's mother in law (Lilly Mae Carroll Jackson, the state NAACP director) and with Thurgood Marshall as counsel, Mitchell successfully sued the University of Maryland for admittance to graduate school; he received his M.A. degree in sociology from the University of Maryland in 1952, and returned to teach at Morgan State.</p>

<p>Mitchell served as a supervisor of probation work for the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City from 1954 to 1957; executive director of the Maryland Human Relations Commission from 1963 to 1965; executive director of the Baltimore Community Action Agency from 1965 to 1968; and president of the Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. from 1969 through 1970. He was a pivotal player in the passage of Maryland’s Public Accommodations Law of 1963. A constituency Mitchell helped organize backed his nephew, Clarence Mitchell, III’s, successful run for the state legislature in 1963, and in 1970, backed by the same political organization, Mitchell was elected to the 92nd United States Congress, representing Maryland’s 7th District.</p>

<p>Reelected to seven consecutive Congresses through 1987, Mitchell served as a member of the Committee on Banking; Finance and Urban Affairs; the chair of the Subcommittee on Access to Capital and Business Opportunities; the Joint Economic Committee; was chair of the Subcommittee on Minority Economic Development and Housing; and was House at Large Whip. As one of the thirteen founders of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971, Mitchell was part of a 20th century resurgence of black political strength. In 1976, Mitchell attached to President Jimmy Carter’s $4 billion Public Works Bill an amendment that compelled state, county, and municipal governments seeking federal grants to set aside ten percent of the money for minority contractors and subcontractors; his amendment to the 1982 Surface Transportation Assistance Act also required ten percent set aside for minorities.</p>

<p>In 1980, Mitchell founded the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (MBELDEF) and served as its chairman of the board.</p>

<p>Mitchell passed away on Monday, May 28, 2007 at the age of 85.</p>

MITCHELL, Parren James, a Representative from Maryland; born in Baltimore, Md., April 29, 1922; attended Baltimore public schools; A.B., Morgan State College, 1950; M.A., University of Maryland, College Park, 1952; served in the United States Army, Ninety-second Infantry Division, commissioned officer and company commander, 1942-1945; received Purple Heart award; professor of sociology and assistant director, Urban Studies Institute, Morgan State College; executive secretary, Maryland Human Relations Commission, 1963-1965; director, Baltimore Community Action Agency, 1965-1968; supervisor, probation work, Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, 1954-1957; president, Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc., 1969-1970; delegate, Maryland State Democratic convention, 1972; delegate, Democratic National Convention, 1972; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-second and to the seven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1971-January 3, 1987); chairman, Committee on Small Business (Ninety-seventh, Ninety-eighth, and Ninety-ninth Congresses); was not a candidate for reelection in 1986; died on May 28, 2007, in Baltimore, Md.; interment in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

<p>Parren James Mitchell (April 29, 1922 – May 28, 2007) was a U.S. Congressman affiliated with the Democratic Party who represented the 7th congressional district of Maryland from January 3, 1971 to January 3, 1987. He was the first African American elected to Congress from Maryland.</p>

<p>Mitchell was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His father, Clarence Maurice Mitchell, was a waiter, and his mother, Elsie Davis Mitchell, was a homemaker. Mitchell graduated from Frederick Douglass Senior High School in Baltimore in 1940. Mitchell served as an officer in the 92nd Infantry Division during World War II, and was wounded in Italy; he received the Purple Heart. He earned his bachelor's degree from Morgan State University, and his master's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1950, Mitchell sued the then segregated University of Maryland for admission to the graduate school with support from the Baltimore Branch of the NAACP, and won admission. When he graduated he was the first African-American to do so from that school.</p>

<p>In 1968, Mitchell challenged nine-term Democratic incumbent Samuel Friedel in the Democratic primary and lost. He sought a rematch in 1970, and this time defeated Friedel by only 38 votes. He then breezed to an election in November, becoming the first African-American elected to Congress from Maryland. After the 1970 census, the 7th was redrawn as a black-majority district—Maryland's first. Mitchell was reelected seven more times from this district, never dropping below 75 percent of the vote. He even ran unopposed in 1974 and 1984 and only faced minor-party opposition in 1976 and 1978.</p>

<p>Mitchell died on May 28, 2007 of pneumonia at Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson, Maryland, after being hospitalized for a week. He was 85.</p>