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Biography · Politics & Public Life

Clarence Lightner

1921–2002

United States

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Biography

Clarence Everett Lightner (August 15, 1921 – July 8, 2002) was an American politician and mortician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina from 1973 to 1975. He was the first popularly elected Mayor of Raleigh since 1947, and the first African American elected mayor of a mostly-white, major Southern city in the United States.

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Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

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