[5] Ida Louise Jackson, the first black teacher in the Oakland district, taught history classes at McClymonds before her retirement in 1953.

In 1962, Afro-American Association sponsored the “Mind of the Ghetto” Conference which was held at McClymonds High School, featured a speech by Rev.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and in attendance was many Black leaders including Malcolm X, young Muhammad Ali, Floyd McKissick, Cecil B. Moore, Huey P. Newton,[7] Wil Ussery, Thomas Berkley, and Paul Cobb.

[11] In 1982, twelve students from the basketball team at McClymonds High School were able to travel to Dakar, Senegal as a goodwill ambassador trip.

[14] McClymonds was featured in the book Black in School: Afrocentric Reform, Urban Youth & the Promise of Hip-Hop Culture (2004), by Shawn Ginwright.

McClymonds offers a variety of sports, including football, baseball, basketball, cross-country, track, tennis, and volleyball.

Many of McClymonds athletes have prospered professionally, from basketball (Bill Russell, Paul Silas, Joe Ellis, Antonio Davis) and football (Wendell Hayes, Marcus Peters) to baseball (Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Curt Flood, Lee Lacy) and track (Jim Hines).

[4] The McClymonds varsity basketball team won a state Tournament of Champions held in 1978 at the Oracle Arena.

The McClymonds varsity football team, led by captain Dwayne Washington, won the Division 5A state championship in January 2017.

[18] McClymonds' health center, founded by Children's Hospital doctor and UC Berkeley alumna Barbara Staggers, and named after activist Chappell Hayes, was opened in 2005.

Staggers partnered with Lisa Hardy, MD., Division Chief of Psychiatry at Children's, to ensure that mental health services would also be available to the school community.