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Bill Clay, Sr.

William Lacy "Bill" Clay, Sr. (born April 30, 1931) is a politician from the state of Missouri. As Congressman from Missouri's First District, he represented portions of St. Louis in the U.S. House of Representatives for 32 years.

Clay was born in St. Louis, Missouri and he graduated from St. Louis University. Clay served in the United States Army from 1953 to 1955, and he was a St. Louis alderman from 1959 to 1964. Clay served 105 days in jail for participating in a Civil Rights demonstration in 1963. Prior to entering Congress, Clay held jobs first as a real estate broker and later as a labor coordinator. He worked for the union of St. Louis city employees from 1961 to 1964 and then with a Steamfitters Union until 1967.

Clay was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1968. He became an advocate for environmentalism, labor issues and social justice. Clay faced ethics charges in the 1970s for billing the government on auto trips while flying on airlines, and the House banking scandal revealed that Clay had 328 overdrafts. In 1993, Clay helped to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act.

From 1991 until the Democrats lost control of Congress in 1995, Clay chaired the House Committee on the Post Office and Civil Service. In 2000, he retired from the House and his son William Lacy Clay, Jr. succeeded him.

Clay made news in early 2007 when, as co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, he objected to the possible inclusion of white congressman Steve Cohen from Tennessee, who represents a majority black district and had made a campaign promise to attempt to become the first white member of the CBC. Clay circulated a memo to current members saying that it was "absolutely critical" that membership remain "exclusively African-American." Although it is not part of the CBC's bylaws that members must be black, all members so far have been black.^[1]

Clay has written several works of non-fiction.

• To Kill or Not to Kill: Thoughts on Capital Punishment (1990) ISBN 0-893-70331-1
• Just Permanent Interests: Black Americans in Congress, 1870–1991 (1992) ISBN 1-567-43000-7
• Racism in the White House: A Common Practice of Most United States Presidents (2002) ISBN 0-882-58206-2
• Bill Clay: A Political Voice at the Grass Roots (2004) ISBN 1-883-98252-9

• biographic sketch at U.S. Congress website

• The History Makers

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