JUST IN: Longtime Congressman Passes Away

Bill Clay Sr. (D-MO), the first black congressman from Missouri, died on Thursday after serving 32 years in the U.S. House. He was 94.

Clay, a champion of civil and workers’ rights, represented the state’s 1st district from 1969 to 2001, where he was a force to be reckoned with in the rebuilding of St. Louis following “white flight” after the Civil Rights Act. He bartered with building trades and in corporate C-suites to see his childhood city redeveloped into the skyline that today encircles its famous arch.

Endorsements from the powerful Democrat could make or break the electoral aspirations of fellow party members, and he was known for requesting firm fealty from those who received his blessing.

“The Black community, almost overwhelmingly, looked at him as a fighter for them,” said his son, former Congressman Lacy Clay (D-MO).

In the years immediately following the passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act, black St. Louisans moved swiftly to seize power in a city that had long segregated its neighborhoods through historically discriminatory redlining practices. Clay, Sr. was ahead of the curve, winning his first election to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen in 1959 at just 28 years old.

He became a fixture at sit-ins where members of St. Louis’ black community protested segregation practiced by establishments like White Castle and Howard Johnson as they separated black and white customers into separate seating and hotel rooms.

“St. Louis was no different from any of the cities in the South,” Clay said in a 1998 profile. “We had rigid segregation — not by law, but by custom.”

St. Louis Democrats who came of age under Clay’s shadow paid tribute to him on Friday.

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer told SLNPR that Clay’s “courageous legacy of public service to St. Louis and the country is etched in his historic legislative battles for the poor, underrepresented and disenfranchised.”

“Millions have him to thank for the Family and Medical Leave Act and raising the minimum wage,” Spencer said. “Generations of Black congressional leaders have followed in his footsteps as members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which he co-founded in 1971. We thank him for his generous service to a city he cared deeply for.”

Congressman Wesley Bell (D-MO) called Clay a ”giant — not just for St. Louis, not just for Missouri, but for the entirety of our country.”

“I counted Mr. Clay as a grand mentor, as a trailblazer, and as a dear friend,” Bell said in a statement. “But more than that, I carry his example with me every time I walk onto the House Floor.”

The Congressional Black Caucus, which counts a record-breaking 62 members in the 119th Congress, said in a statement, “Congressman Bill Clay leaves behind a legacy of dignity, courage, and transformative impact. His work laid the foundation for future generations of Black leadership in public service. May he rest in power and everlasting.”