{"id":11428,"date":"2025-07-17T20:01:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T20:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/bill-clay-sr-founding-member-of-congressional-black-caucus-dies\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T20:01:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T20:01:42","slug":"bill-clay-sr-founding-member-of-congressional-black-caucus-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/bill-clay-sr-founding-member-of-congressional-black-caucus-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Clay Sr., founding member of Congressional Black Caucus, dies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Former Rep. Bill Clay Sr. (D-Mo.), one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus and an icon in Missouri\u2019s civil rights movement, died this week, the CBC said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongressman Clay helped build the CBC into a force for equity and accountability in American Democracy,\u201d caucus Chair Yvette Clarke (D-Nev.) said Thursday in a press statement<\/a>. \u201cAs a member of Congress, he was a fierce defender of labor rights, education and social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clay was 94.<\/p>\n

Clay became Missouri\u2019s first Black congressman<\/a> when St. Louis voters elected him in 1968. He entered the House alongside two other Black lawmakers, former Reps. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio) and Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) The trio helped launch the Congressional Black Caucus<\/a> several years later in 1971.<\/p>\n

Clay spent his entire 32-year career<\/a> in the House serving on the Education and Labor Committee, where he championed efforts to reform the Hatch Act and promoted the Family and Medical Leave Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993.<\/p>\n

When Clay left public office, he was succeeded by his son<\/a>, William Lacy Clay Jr., who served in Congress until 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis work laid the foundation for future generations of Black leadership in public service,\u201d Clarke wrote. \u201cMay he rest in power and everlasting peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Rep. Bill Clay Sr. (D-Mo.), one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus and an icon in Missouri\u2019s civil rights movement, died this week, the CBC said. \u201cCongressman Clay helped build the CBC into a force for equity and accountability in American Democracy,\u201d caucus Chair Yvette Clarke (D-Nev.) said Thursday in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}