[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 37 (Monday, February 27, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING THE EXTRAORDINARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF CLIFTON WHARTON, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELISSA SLOTKIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 27, 2023

  Ms. SLOTKIN. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in honor of a man who has 
spent his entire life and career breaking racial barriers and paving 
the way for future generations of Black scholars and leaders. The name 
Clifton Wharton Jr. is known by many in the Michigan State University 
community thanks to a prominent campus landmark: the Wharton Center for 
the Performing Arts. But in addition to his name, I want them to know 
his story, as it features a persistent rise against the odds, a tale 
worthy of being staged inside the building that now bears his name.
  By the time Clifton Wharton Jr. became president of Michigan State 
University--the first African-American to head a major, predominantly 
white university in the United States--he was no stranger to being 
first. Wharton, who grew up in Boston, entered Harvard University at 
age 16. There he became the first Black announcer at the campus radio 
station and the first Black secretary of the National Student 
Association, a lobbying group he founded. Later, he was the first 
African-American admitted to Johns Hopkins University's School of 
Advanced International Studies and the first African-American to earn a 
Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. He worked for about 
a decade with the Agriculture Development Council, a non-governmental 
agency, before returning to the academic world.
  When the MSU trustees appointed him the University's 14th president 
in 1969, it was a time of tremendous change and cultural upheaval for 
the country, with college campuses taking center stage in the civil 
rights movement and protests over the Vietnam War. Against that 
tumultuous backdrop, Wharton set another first: unlike any other major 
university president of the time, he supported students who demanded 
that their concerns be heard, even offering to personally take student 
petitions against the war to Michigan's Congressional delegation in 
Washington, D.C.
  Wharton's eight-year tenure at MSU's helm was marked by his 
successful efforts to maintain the quality of the University's academic 
programs in the face of major budget cuts, his commitment to serving 
underprivileged students, and the integration of the College of 
Osteopathic Medicine with the other medical schools. In 1978, Wharton 
achieved another first when he stepped down from MSU to become the 
chancellor for the State University of New York system, making him the 
first African American leader of the nation's largest university 
system.
  But he wasn't done breaking barriers. In 1987, he was named the 
president and CEO of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-
College Retirement Equities Fund, making him the first Black CEO of a 
Fortune 500 company. He held that role until 1993, when he became 
Deputy Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton, not 
surprisingly, the first African American to ever hold this second 
highest foreign policy post.
  I salute Dr. Wharton for his groundbreaking career and the path of 
excellence he has blazed.

                          ____________________