Mitchell Family Collection

Clarence Muarice Mitchell, Jr. (b.1911–d.1984) and Juanita Elizabeth Jackson Mitchell (b.1913–d.1992) were national legal and civil rights activists from Baltimore, Maryland. Known for their work with the NAACP and committment to public service, they helped the passage of significant civil rights legislation and advocated for desegregation throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1911 and attended Frederick Douglass High School, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and University of Minnesota. Mitchell was the chief lobbyist of the NAACP from 1950 to 1979. He was nicknamed the "101st Senator" for his civil rights advocacy on Capitol Hill that led to legislation including: the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. His brother was U.S. Congressman Parren Mitchell.

Juanita Jackson Mitchell attended Frederick Douglass High School and Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated in 1931 from University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in education and later earned a master's degree in sociology from the same university. She became the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Maryland School of Law and the first female African American lawyer to practice in the state of Maryland in 1950. She advocated for and filed suits to desegregaate every aspect of segregated society in Maryland. In the 1950s she served as the president of Maryland's NAACP Baltimore City Branch. Her mother, Dr. Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson, led the Baltimore NAACP from 1935 to 1970.

Clerence M. Mitchell, Jr. and Juanita Jackson married in 1938. The couple’s sons, Clarence M. Mitchell III and Michael B. Mitchell, Sr., were elected Baltimore City Councilmen and Maryland Senators.

Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. and Juanita Jackson Mitchell were recognized nationally for their civil rights work and honored with numerous awards. Locally, in Baltimore they were active members in the community. Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. died in 1984 and Juanita Jackson Mitchell died in 1992.