Early Life
Mitchell was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His father, Clarence M. Mitchell, Sr., was a waiter, and his mother, Elsie Davis Mitchell, was a homemaker. Mitchell graduated from Frederick Douglass Senior High School (Baltimore, Maryland) in 1940. Mitchell served as an officer in the 92nd Infantry Division during World War II, and was wounded in Italy; he received the Purple Heart. He earned his bachelor's degree from Morgan State University, and his master's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. Parren Mitchell was the brother of the late Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., who was head of the NAACP's Washington office and was one of Lyndon Johnson's chief advisors in the civil rights movement. In 1950, Mitchell sued the then segregated University of Maryland for admission to the graduate school, and won admission. When he graduated he was the first African-American to do so from that school.
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