Draft:Clark Foreman
Southern politician during New Deal
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Early Life and Education
Clark Howell Foreman was born February 19, 1902, in Atlanta Georgia, the youngest of three brothers.[1][2] His parents were Robert and Effie Foreman.[1] He was named after his grandfather, Clark Howell, who owned and operated a newspaper company in Georgia called The Atlanta Constitution.[1][3]
At age 16, Foreman attended the University of Georgia where he got his degree in classical studies and was a part of the debate team on campus.[1][2]While attending the university, he witnessed the lynching of an African American man, this was the first time he had witnessed a lynching firsthand.[1] Following his graduation, Foreman left the south and went to Harvard University with the goal of studying finance, however his focus shifted towards the study of historical revolutionaries and socialism.[1][2]
After one year of study, Foreman left Harvard to take a trip out to Europe that led him to enroll in the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1923 where he studied psychology of political theory.[1] In 1926, Foreman graduated from the University of Georgia with a masters in sociology.[2] Throughout Foreman's travels and education, he developed many relationships that would help him in his eventual work with Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
Career and Political Involvement
In 1933, Foreman got offered his first political appointment as an advisor to Harold Ikes.[2] During his time as Ikes' advisor, he was offered the role of Special Advisor on the Economic Status of Negros.[3][4] He used this position to advocate for the inclusion of African Americans within the New Deal. By 1940, Foreman had been promoted to lead the Public Works Administration (PWA) and was the director of defense housing for the Federal Works Agency (FWA).[3][4]
During this time, Foreman was asked by President Roosevelt to travel the South and write a report on how the New Deal was affecting the south.[4] He traveled the south and worked with others in the government to create the Report on the Economic Conditions of the South which covered a multitude of subjects such as land ownership and access to healthcare and education in southern states.[1][4] The report found that discrimination and poverty were rife within southern states while also pointing out how poll taxes were keeping African Americans from voting in southern politics.[1] The creation and publication of this report pushed the president and other politicians to focus their policies toward issues within the south, with both racial and economic issues in mind.
During his work with the FWA, Foreman created federal worker housing under the Sojourner Truth Housing Development for African American workers in Detroit, Michigan.[1] This proposed housing was designed to deal with the influx of African American workers in the federal government and was placed in an all-white area of Detroit.[1] This became a source of controversy between the local government and Foreman, with the local government trying to push the new development to include Whites as well.[1][4] Foreman refused to bend to the local governments demands and the clash resulted in his resignation from the FWA.[1] He returned to work under the PWA in 1941, but the controversy from the Sojourner Truth Housing Development kept him from holding a powerful position.[1]
Foreman held a few small positions within the government but began to grow frustrated with his inability to make major changes for the south and the African Americans residing in it.[1] This led to his official departure from the US government where he went on to become the president of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW) in 1942.[1][4]