Lawyer, human rights activist and former federal government official, William Ramsey Clark won both acclaim and condemnation for his work in the Attorney General’s office.
Son of attorney general and later associate Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, Ramsey followed in his father’s footsteps, graduating from the University of Chicago Law School in 1950. For ten years, from 1951-1961, Ramsey practiced in a private law firm before making his way to the Justice Department during the early days of the Kennedy administration.
Once here, he soon became known for his radical policies, often at odds with the prevailing system. As the 66th U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey, then 39, played an important role in the administration’s civil rights agenda, seeking the abolishment of capital punishment and ordering a moratorium on federal executions, defending the people’s right to privacy by denying wiretaps requested under a dubious catchall provision of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, advocating a more active role for the Justice Department in protecting civil rights activists, and even supervising the drafting of the 1968 Civil Rights Act.
This was a turning point. But when Richard Nixon (who made him a central issue during his presidential campaign and promised a new attorney general if he were elected) became president in 1969, Ramsey left office and decided to embrace his activist tendencies and be accountable to no constituency except his own conscience.
As an antiwar and civil rights activist, Ramsey founded the International Action Center in 1992, speaking out against US military invasions wherever they occurred—Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, Libya, Somalia, Iraq, the Balkans. Today, almost 24 years after Ramsey started it, the largest antiwar movement in the United States continues to work toward the liberation of all peoples living in the U.S. and around the world.
Despite having once been the highest law-enforcement officer in the land, Ramsey consistently takes the side of the oppressed. He has served as legal counsel to many controversial figures, including alleged war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, antiwar priest Father Daniel Berrigan, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui, perpetrators of genocide like Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, and conspirator to blow up the World Trade Center, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, to name a few.
Ramsey has even gone so far as to join the lawsuit against former President George W. Bush, his Vice President Richard Cheney and other members of the Bush administration for their role in the invasion of Iraq .
Today, at 85, there is little doubt what Ramsey Clark is against — any manifestation of the power of the state he once served at the height of the Vietnam War.
When asked why he focuses on the crimes of his own country, instead of those committed by Iraq, Clark says that we, as citizens, need to announce our principles and "force our government to adhere to them. When you see your government violating those principles, you have the highest obligation to correct what your government does, not point the finger at someone else."
