Mattie Clyburn Rice

Mattie Clyburn Rice (September 15, 1922 – September 1, 2014) was an African-American member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. As the daughter of a Confederate Veteran, she is considered a "Real Daughter of the Confederacy" by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and is the second African-American woman to be recognized as such. At the time of her induction into the United Daughters of the Confederacy, she was one of twenty-three women who were living daughters of Confederate veterans. Rice successfully campaigned for her father and nine other African-American men, one freedman and eight enslaved, to be recognized for their Civil War service with a historical marker in Monroe, North Carolina.

Biography Rice was born on September 15, 1922, in Marshville, North Carolina to a young mother and an elderly father. He was formerly enslaved and had served as a bodyguard for his owner, Captain Thomas Frank Clyburn, in the 12th South Carolina Infantry Regiment of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. According to his military pension record, Clyburn was at the Battle of Port Royal at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, carrying his owner out of the field on his shoulder, and later, he performed personal service for General Robert E. Lee. According to historian Kevin Levin, Rice's father did not serve the Confederate army willingly, but was forced to serve in the army by his owner. According to the North Carolina Museum of History, Rice was one of the last living people in North Carolina to be the daughter of a formerly enslaved person.

She grew up during the Jim Crow Era, when racial segregation was the law in North Carolina. In 2013, she was presented the Horace L. Hunley Award by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

She died from congestive heart failure on September 1, 2014, at her home in Archdale, North Carolina. The North Carolina and South Carolina State Presidents of the United Daughters of the Confederacy spoke at her funeral.