John Clarence was born in Honea Path, Anderson County, South Carolina, on March 2, 1890.

He attended the Fruitland Institute, Hendersonville, North Carolina.

He was graduated from the law department of the University of South Carolina in Columbia in 1919.

He was the clerk of court and register of deeds for Anderson County, South Carolina, from 1920 until elected to Congress.

He was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third, Seventy-fourth, and Seventy-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1939).