Ramsey Clark, Attorney General and Rebel With a Cause, Dies at 93

[DonViejo]

Source: New York Times


Mr. Clark oversaw the drafting of the Fair Housing Act in 1968 and went on to defend both the disadvantaged and the unpopular.

By Douglas Martin
April 10, 2021, 11:23 a.m. ET

Ramsey Clark, who championed civil rights and liberties as attorney general in the Johnson administration, then devoted much of the rest of his life to defending unpopular causes and infamous people, including Saddam Hussein and others accused of war crimes, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan He was 93. His niece Sharon Welch announced the death.

In becoming the nation’s top law enforcement official, Mr. Clark was part of an extraordinary father-and-son trade-off in the federal halls of power. His appointment prompted his father, Justice Tom C. Clark, to resign from the United States Supreme Court to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest involving cases in which the federal government might come before that bench.

To fill Justice Clark’s seat, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall, who became the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court.

Mr. Clark, a tall, rangy man who shunned a government limousine in favor of his own beat-up Oldsmobile, set an ambitiously liberal course as attorney general. Days after taking office, he filed the first lawsuit to force a school district — Dale County, Ala. — to desegregate or else lose its federal school aid. He went on to file the first voting rights and school desegregation suits in the North.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/politics/ramsey-clark-dead.html

[Mickju]

1. He was a great man.

I remember him well. RIP

[earthside]

12. Indeed, he was a bold, courageous, and enigmatic man.

I met him the mid-1970s.

Clark was quite charismatic and had a beautiful Texas accent (and I usual can't stand a Texas drawl).

[Mickju]

17. I feel the same way and I grew up in Texas. Haha

[gopiscrap]

2. RIP

Probably one of the very best AG's we have ever had serving us.

[gademocrat7]

3. Rest In Peace, Ramsey Clark.

[bahboo]

4. remembering an ethical time in politics...

didn't remember about his dad resigning....

[Paladin]

5. One of the really good ones.

He prevailed over a mountain of shit the right-wingers threw at him.

[Hekate]

6. Rest in peace, sir, and thank you for your public service

[SleeplessinSoCal]

7. Aaron Sorkin reminded us of his moral clarity.

And Michael Keaton playing him was a very good in The Trial of the Chicago Seven.

[genxlib]

18. I was going to say that

I had just finished watching the movie when I saw this news.

Great movie. Worth the time and so relevant to today.

[onenote]

19. My only complaint was with the depiction of his home

Ramsey and his family lived in northern Virginia in a fairly modest home. And they definitely didn't have a maid who answered the door.

[sarchasm]

8. A giant ... RIP Mr. Clark

[Tommymac]

9. Godspeed Ramsey

[Cal Carpenter]

10. Aw, wow, he was quite a guy

His book The Fire This Time was a major eye-opener for me as I gained political awareness and wanted to learn more about the US as empire...

[JohnnyRingo]

11. I remember him, and it was the '60s

That says something about how remarkable he was.

[deurbano]

14. Good one!

[deurbano]

13. I met him in San Francisco in 2002 when we were trying to prevent the pending war on Iraq.

He was working with ANSWER (a controversial group), but it was frustrating that everyone was trashing ANSWER, but not actually organizing alternative protest efforts, so at first, it was them or nothing. And then ANSWER was frustrating because they wanted to include every issue under the sun instead of just focusing on the pending war, which I thought would be more effective.

Ramsey Clarke signed a book for me, and I'll have to find it, but he wrote something more personally aimed at me than you get at most book signings... and he seemed authentic, compassionate and genuinely principled, even though I think he was fairly questioned about some he represented.

The NYT article mentioned something I hadn't heard before, that his daughter, Ronda was born with a profound disability, and it makes me think even more highly of him, that he was able to see the joy in this experience, and be uplifted by it, at a time when that would not have been a common response:

Ronda Clark was born deaf, epileptic and profoundly intellectually disabled, and Mr. Clark cited her many times as an inspiration for his humanitarian efforts.

“Ronda is our great joy,” he said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News in 1996. “But more than that, she’s a great teacher. She has shown us the importance of patience, of discovery and love.”

I saw an article from 2018, when he was 90, and his daughter had still been living with him until shortly before that time, and still frequently visited. (His wife died in 2010.)

(Of course, I thought highly of Scott Ritter, too, so probably best not to to deify people.)

[sinkingfeeling]

15. He was one of the good guys.

[2naSalit]

16. ...

[VarryOn]

20. What a blessing to make it to 93! Nt

[oasis]

21. Ramsey Clark. One of our finest Americans. May he rest in peace.

[Rhiannon12866]

22. K&R. I remember when he came to speak at my school in the mid '70s

His appearance was very popular at the time. We could use more like him today.

[Raine]

23. A very good man

We are poorer for the loss of him .... R-I-P Mr. Clark

[BumRushDaShow]

24. R.I.P.

I know he had been actively commenting on various critical topics for a long time... at least until recently.

Condolences to his family and thank you for your long, critical, and ground-breaking civil rights service.

[artemisia1]

25. He helped another great American, James Meredith, fulfill his dreams.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Meredith