John Hansen Clarke is the most senior Bangladeshi-American holding an elected post in State Senate. Senator Clarke is the son of late Abdul Hashim, who hailed from Beani Bazar, Sylhet.
An only child, Hansen Clarke grew up in a low income neighborhood on Detroit's lower east side. His father passed away when he was only eight years old and his mother supported the family with a job as a school crossing guard. Food stamps helped fill in the gaps.
Hansen Clarke's journey out of poverty began in the third grade when an observant school teacher recognized his artistic ability and urged his mother Thelma to provide him with lessons. Private lessons were out of the question on a crossing guard's salary. However, being a resourceful person, she was able to arrange for the Detroit Institute of Arts to pay for the lessons through a grant.
Clarke's hard work and innate artistic ability eventually lead to a scholarship offer from Cornell University. While he would graduate from Cornell with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting, his career would take him in a very different direction.
During his freshman year at Cornell, Clarke received the devastating news that his mother Thelma had died. "I felt that I was alone as a person," said Clarke. "I can see now how all of that impacted the person I became. That's why I'm so quick to protect other people. When I see someone alone and vulnerable I can relate to what they are going through."
While at Cornell, Clarke was troubled by how few minorities there were on campus. Concerned that the university might be moving away from providing need-based scholarships to disadvantaged students, he decided to run for the student seat on the Cornell University Board of Trustees. By his senior year at Cornell, Clarke decided to set aside his art to pursue a profession in law. He was accepted into Georgetown Law School where he graduated a Juris Doctorate.
After passing the bar, Hansen Clarke returned to Detroit where his career has been on an almost meteoric rise. He was elected three times to the Michigan House of Representatives and in 2002 defeated incumbent state Senator Ray Murphy.
Today, Hansen Clarke has come full circle. After being away from his craft for nineteen years, he recently returned to his painting. "For years, I wanted to paint. Once I did it, I noticed how alive I felt."
The Senator is currently working on a painting of an African mask with an Indian floral design. It is, in part, a tribute to his father who was of Indian (present-day Bangladeshi) decent.
Senator Clarke is also setting up a scholarship fund that will help send disadvantaged inner city youths to a college prep school. Named after his mother, the Thelma Clarke Scholarship Fund, is his way of giving back to society. "That's what makes this country so great. We have an opportunity to invest in one another."
