Clifton Wharton

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Person.png Clifton Wharton  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(diplomat)
CliftonRWhartonUSEmbassyOslo.jpg
BornClifton Reginald Wharton
May 11, 1899
Baltimore, Maryland
DiedApril 25, 1990 (Age 90)
Phoenix, Arizona
NationalityAmerican
Alma materBoston University School of Law
ChildrenClifton Reginald Wharton Jr.
Member ofCouncil on Foreign Relations/Historical Members, Trilateral Commission
US diplomat who attended the 1978 Bilderberg

Employment.png US/Ambassador/Norway Wikipedia-icon.png

In office
March 2, 1961 - September 4, 1964

Employment.png US/Ambassador/Romania Wikipedia-icon.png

In office
March 7, 1958 - October 21, 1960

Clifton Reginald Wharton Sr. was an American diplomat, and the first African American diplomat to become an ambassador by rising through the ranks of the Foreign Service rather than by political appointment such as Frederick Douglass.[1] He also became the first black Foreign Service Officer to become chief of a diplomatic mission.[2] He attended the 1978 Bilderberg conference.

Life

Born in Baltimore, Wharton received his law degree in 1920 and an advanced law degree in 1923 from Boston University School of Law. He practiced in Boston before joining the United States State Department as a law clerk in the Career United States Foreign Service. Wharton went on to be Vice Consul in Monrovia (1927–1929), Consul in Las Palmas (1932–1938), Minister to Romania (1958–1961) and Ambassador to Norway (1961–1964).[3][4]

Wharton’s appointments in both Romania and Norway were in part due to the government strategy of placing prominent African-Americans in international posts in an attempt to counter the ill effects of international outrage over domestic racial discrimination.[5]

Wharton died in Phoenix, Arizona.

Wharton was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

In 1978, the State Department had a day honoring him and diplomat Lucile Atcherson Curtis, who was the first woman in what became the U.S. Foreign Service.[6][7][8]

Family

He married Harriet Banks; they had three children.[9] His son Clifton Reginald Wharton Jr. is a noted economist and executive who also worked the State Department as Deputy Secretary of State during the Clinton administration, and before that as president of Michigan State University.

 

Event Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/197821 April 197823 April 1978US
New Jersey
Princeton University
The 26th Bilderberg, held in the US
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References

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