Lion in the Lobby: Clarence Mitchell, Jr.'s Struggle for the Passage of Civil Rights Laws

Civil rights lobbyist Mitchell is an unsung hero of the movement for racial equality. Director of the NAACP's Washington bureau for 28 years, the ``101st Senator,'' as he was dubbed, influenced presidents from FDR to Carter and played a pivotal role in pushing through major civil rights legislation. Born in a Baltimore ghetto, Mitchell, as a cub reporter, covered a 1933 lynching and the Scottsboro, Ala., trial of nine black youths charged with raping two whites. He ran unsuccessfully on the Socialist party ticket for the Maryland legislature but later became a political conservative. A courtly man whose blunt oratory often embroiled him in controversy, Mitchell made history in the halls of Congress and behind the scenes. He died poor in 1984. Watson, publicity director for the NAACP, encapsulates the drama and turmoil of the civil rights movement in this absorbing, massive biography. Photos. (June)