A native of
Salisbury, North Carolina, Clement started out as a professor and then dean of
Livingstone College in Salisbury. Clement then served as the first dean of
Louisville Municipal College, a segregated college for Negros of
University of Louisville. In 1937, he was named president of Atlanta University, position which he held until his death some thirty years later. At least one author supports this theory, arguing that Du Bois' confrontational approach to
civil rights for African Americans clashed with Clement's more accommodationist inclination. In 1953, Clement was elected to the Atlanta School Board, having become the first African American since
Reconstruction to hold public office in Atlanta. He served for three terms prior to retirement in 1966. In the
1966 gubernatorial election, Clement endorsed the
Republican nominee,
U.S. Representative Howard "Bo" Callaway, who challenged the
Democrat Lester Maddox, a businessman and staunch
segregationist who had closed his Pickrick Restaurant to avoid integration. Clement and the Negro Baptist Convention argued that the only way to prevent Maddox's election was for blacks to support Callaway though many in the minority group opposed Callaway's
conservative voting record in Congress. Ultimately as a result of an election impasse, the
Georgia General Assembly elected Maddox as governor, 182 to 66. ==Family==