Clarence W. Blount

Clarence W. Blount (April 20, 1921 – April 12, 2003) was an American politician who was the first African American to be the majority leader of the Maryland State Senate. He represented the 41st district in Baltimore, from January 11, 1971, to January 8, 2003.

Early life and education Blount was born to Lottie and Charles Johnson Blount Sr., in South Creek, North Carolina, one of four children. As a child, Blount helped his father work on a tobacco plantation. It was only after the family moved to Baltimore that Clarence Blount was able to begin school at the age of 10.

He attended Baltimore City public schools and graduated from Douglass High School and then entered Morgan State College, during which he was drafted into the then segregated United States Army to fight in World War II. He served with distinction in Italy as a member of the all-Black Buffalo Division of the 92nd Infantry. Clarence Blount was a former principal and educator at Dunbar High School and a former executive assistant to president at the Community College of Baltimore.

Boston v. Blount In 1998, state delegate Frank Boston filed a lawsuit against Blount, alleging that Blount lived outside of the district he represented and should be removed from the ballot. Boston was running against Blount in the Democratic primary. At the time of the lawsuit, Blount kept an apartment with no telephone and only a futon to sleep on within the district, but lived in Pikesville, which is located outside of the district in Baltimore County. Blount's attorneys argued in court that Blount qualified to represent the district because of this apartment, relying in part on Maryland Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs's 1984 opinion that listed 20 elements that determined a politician's residence. In August 1998, Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Michael E. Loney ruled that Blount lived outside of the district and was ineligible to run in it, removing his name from the ballot; Blount appealed the ruling the day after. In September 1998, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Blount, putting him back on the Democratic primary ballot and overturning the lower court ruling. Court of Appeals Judge John C. Eldridge wrote in the court's 29-page opinion that while the Court acknowledged that Blount's apartment was not his home, but argued that a "domicile" doesn't mean a lawmaker's primary residence. The decision would come to be known as the "Clarence Blount rule".

In 2022, Maryland state senator Charles E. Sydnor III introduced and passed a bill that would place a referendum on the ballot to amend the state constitution to overturn the Boston v. Blount decision, requiring candidates to "maintain a primary place of abode" in their district for at least six months before the general election. Memorial services were held at the Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center at Morgan State University, and were moderated by state senator Joan Carter Conway. U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes, U.S. Representatives Ben Cardin and Elijah Cummings, and current and former city, state, and judicial leaders spoke at the memorial service. After his funeral service, Blount was laid to rest in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Electoral history