Clifton R. Wharton Sr. was born on May 11, 1899 in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from high school and skipped undergraduate work by directly entering Boston University School of Law, receiving a LL.B. degree in 1920. He then earned a LL.M. degree from Boston University in 1923. In 1925 Clifton Wharton Sr. took the Foreign Service exam while working at the State Department as a law clerk. He became the first black to pass the written and oral exams. In ??? He was appointed vice consul and second secretary to the U.S. Legation in Liberia. From 1930-1941 he served as the Consul in Las Palmas, Canary Islands and from 1936-1942 temporary assignments in Monrovia, Liberia as the charge d’affaires. From 1942-1945 he was Consul in Madagascar and the as the American Maritime Delegate Consul in the Azores from 1945-1949. In 1953 he became Consul General and First Secretary in Lisbon, Portugal and then Consul General in Marseille, France from 1953-1958. In 1958 he was appointed the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Romania. His last post before retirement, was as Ambassador to Norway from 1961 to 1964. He married Harriette Banks in 1924 and they went on to have four children, Clifton R. Wharton Jr., William B. Wharton II, Richard G. Wharton and H. Mary Sampson. Clifton Wharton Sr. later remarried to Evangeline Leonie Spears. Clifton R. Wharton Sr. died on April 23, 1990 in Arizona. Source: TIAA Cref press release, Clifton Reginald Wharton, 90, First Black Career Ambassador in U.S. Foreign Service, April 24, 1990