Clark's subject matter was the diaspora of African American culture, including dance scenes, street urchins, marine life, landscapes, and religious and political satire images executed primarily with a palette knife.

In early August 1923, Clark's parents left the south for a better life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the Great Migration.

Clark attended Roxborough High School[1] where he wrote poetry but also discovered a talent for painting.

[1] In 1941, Claude met the daughter of an African Methodist Episcopal Church minister, Effie May Lockhart from California.

[3] He continued his paint studies at The Barnes Foundation while teaching art in the Philadelphia Public School system during the early years of their marriage.

As a member of the Black West Coast Arts Movement, he co-developed the first African American Studies curriculum.

While studying at Barnes in 1939, Clark found a job through the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

[1] Clark matured in art by recognizing his opportunity to develop without being constrained by the racism, poverty and inherent inequality of circumstance prejudice and labels bring.

Clark worked at various jobs throughout the late 1930s and mid-1940s before accepting a position as an art instructor with Philadelphia Public school in 1945–1948.

In 1955, while teaching at Talladega, Clark began feeling the financial pressures and made the decision to move his family to his wife's native state of California to seek greater opportunity.