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__NOTOC__ Clarence Everett Lightner (August 15, 1921 – July 8, 2002) was the first popularly elected Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina and the first African American elected mayor of a metropolitan (defined as having a population of 50,000 or more) Southern city. Lightner, a Democrat, was also the first and to date only black mayor of Raleigh, serving in office from 1973 to 1975. His mayoral election gained national attention since only 16% of registered voters in Raleigh were black, and it was unique for a white-majority city to elect a black candidate for mayor. Even more surprising to some was the fact his race was rarely mentioned in the campaign. Lightner came of age in an era when most blacks in the South were still disfranchised, was elected to the City Council two years after passage of the Voting Rights Act, and was elected mayor six years later. Lightner was a man of "dignity and perseverance", who brought people together when he entered public political life, as he had for years in his community work. In a 1976 book on Southern politics, authors Jack Bass and Walter DeVries wrote "Perhaps no political campaign better reflected changing attitudes on race than the 1973 mayor's race in Raleigh, in which black City Councilman Clarence Lightner won support from a coalition of white suburbanites concerned about urban and suburban sprawl."〔 〕 ==Early life== Lightner was born in Raleigh to Mammie Blackmon and Calvin E. Lightner, founder of the Lightner Funeral Home and a local leader who ran for office as a nonpartisan with Dr. Manassa T. Pope. Calvin Lightner graduated from Shaw College in Raleigh. Both parents encouraged Clarence to attend college, an ambitious goal in an era when only 1.7% of contemporary black men in the South earned a college degree, and only 5.9% of white men nationwide did so. Lightner graduated from North Carolina Central University, a historically black college in Durham, North Carolina. Lightner also attended Echols College of Mortuary Science in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to prepare for working with his father as a funeral director. While attending North Carolina Central University, Lightner was a star athlete and inducted into the CIAA Hall of Fame. He became a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, one of the first founded by African Americans. It was a connection that would provide a lifelong social network. Lightner served three years in the United States Army during World War II, then returned to Raleigh. Growing up in the state capital, Lightner had the advantages of a city with an educated and politically sophisticated black middle class, of which his parents were part. Despite official discouragement of black voter registration, for instance, with efforts by the Negro Voters League starting in 1931, by 1946 there were 7,000 black voters registered in the city, which was rare in the segregated South.〔 Political activism increased in the postwar years, but most black voters in the South were disfranchised until the passage of the national Voting Rights Act. After returning home, Lightner became an independent businessman, working with his father to manage the Lightner Funeral Home and Hillside Cemetery. In 1946, he married Marguerite Massey. They had four children: Claire, Debra, Lawrence (who died before his father), and Bruce. Lightner and Marguerite were active members of Davie Street Presbyterian Church, where he served as an elder. Lightner managed the funeral home for 45 years, succeeding his father as owner of the business. The work made him a cornerstone of the community. He was an active member of professional associations for learning, and served as president of the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association. Maintaining his fraternal ties, Lightner was chair of the Life Membership Foundation of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clarence Lightner」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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