Clarence McClane Pendleton Jr. (November 10, 1930 – June 5, 1988) was the politically conservative African American chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, a position that he held from 1981 until his death during the administration of U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan.
African Americans, he said, should build strong relations with the private sector and end ties to liberal bureaucrats and philosophies.
Pendleton made headlines for saying black civil rights leaders were "the new racists" because they advocated affirmative action, racial quotas, and set-asides.
"[5] Pendleton denounced the feminist concept of comparable worth in the establishment of male and female pay scales as "probably the looniest idea since Looney Tunes came on the screen.
William Bradford Reynolds, Reagan's Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, described his friend Pendleton as "a man of candor who felt very deeply that the individuals in America should deal with one another as brothers and sisters totally without regard to race and background.
Authorized under the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the commission was reconstituted by a 1983 law of Congress after Reagan dismissed three commissioners critical of his policies.
[8] In the spring of 1986, the Los Angeles Times urged that the outspoken Pendleton either be removed from the commission or that his policies be reversed in the interest of minorities and women.
[10] President Reagan rang his wife Magrit to offer his condolences, writing in his diary: "Another sad phone call to Clarence Pendleton's widow—a widow as of yesterday.
The White House released a statement that day from the President which said:[12]Yesterday, with the sudden death of Clarence Pendleton, America lost a leading apostle of a just and colorblind society...In his uncompromising articulation of the ideal of a colorblind society open to all without regard to race, giving no quarter to either prejudice or preference, Penny insisted that the full brunt of the law should be brought to bear on discrimination.
"[13] A memorial bench dedicated in Pendleton's honor is located in the De Anza Cove section of Mission Bay Park in San Diego.