By Tom LoBianco
The Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics and Center for Public Leadership hosted longtime Democratic Rep. James Clyburn at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Monday for a discussion titled, “Moral Leadership in Polarized Times.”
CPL faculty director Anthony Foxx began his conversation with Clyburn by asking him about how his upbringing and personal experiences shaped him as a leader.
Clyburn, who will turn 85 in July, talked about his childhood in Sumter, South Carolina father a reverend and his mother a beautician who had grown up in the cotton fields of Lee County, South Carolina – which was, at the time, the largest cotton-producing county in the state.
He said his father raised them with two important rules—in addition to the other rules his father had, Clyburn said with a laugh.
“Every morning, before you lift your fork to your lips, you had to repeat a Bible verse. And you couldn’t say the same one twice,” Clyburn said. “And every evening, before retiring to bed, you had to share with him a current event. And no matter what your homework was or the day, you had to share with him a Bible verse.”
Clyburn said his father was training him for ministry, but as a sophomore at South Carolina State University, Clyburn made his way into political organizing instead. He helped organize the first sit-in in the state to desegregate the state’s “white-only” lunch counters and public facilities.
Clyburn said, “when I went home to tell my dad that I was not going to go to the seminary, he said to me on that day, ‘Well, son, I suspect the world would be much rather see a sermon than to hear one.’”
Clyburn worked his way from a leader in the Civil Rights Movement to a job in the South Carolina governor’s office, before winning a seat in Congress in 1990. Clyburn served as a top-ranking House Democrat for 16 years before stepping aside after the 2022 elections for a younger generation of Democratic House leaders.
In 2020, Clyburn played a pivotal role in the Democratic primaries when he endorsed Joe Biden just days before the South Carolina primary, starting a turnaround which led Biden to the Democratic nomination and, ultimately, the White House.
In addition to his work championing civil rights, Clyburn has pushed for expanded access to health care and improved education funding throughout his career in Washington.
Foxx asked Clyburn, “Can you define moral leadership?”
The long-serving congressman replied, “My favorite Bible verse is Micah 6:8, For he has shown to you man, that which is required to do justly, love mercifully and be humble. To me, that is my moral compass, to do that which is just, to be merciful and to be humble.”
Earlier in the day, Harvard President Alan Garber announced in a letter in response to the Trump Administration’s demands of Harvard, that the “University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.” Doing so, Garber said, "would violate the university’s motto, “Veritas”, Truth,”and would violate the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”
Clyburn recalled how he first heard about president Garber’s letter while deboarding a plane in Washington, D.C., “I pulled out my device, and this headline smacked me in the face that Harvard University had rejected them.”
The audience began applauding loudly.
“I feel very strongly that this could very well… break the fever. I really hope it does,” Clyburn said.
Over the course of a little more than an hour, Clyburn talked about his interactions with former president Joe Biden before the 2024 election and his advice for Democrats navigating this uncertain terrain as public leaders.
He cited the philosopher George Santayana, in saying Americans must learn the lessons of history.
“In this country we struggle with what is moral,” Clyburn said. “I have no idea what the moral underpinnings of our country will be like this time next year.”
Clyburn decried that “hate sells” in the current media environment, and that Democrats and opponents of authoritarianism have to decide whether they want attention or results.
“I don’t know how we get out of this, but I know we’re in deep, and I’m not too sure the American public can wait on the Democrats,” he said. “I think you’ve got to decide whether or not you want to love or hate.”
The 17-term congressman, former top-ranking member of the House Democratic leadership, and longtime leader of Congressional Black Caucus said he has counseled his colleagues recently that they need to decide whether they “want to make headlines, or headway.”
“I said to them, ‘If you want to make headway, you may want to think about giving up some headlines,” he said.
Photo by Martha Stewart, Harvard Institute of Politics