1959 was a year of serious losses for Mitchell : his father died of cancer in June and his brother Lorenzo in a car accident . Although confined to bed at the time of Lorenzo 's death , his mother Elsie Davis Mitchell had her other sons carry her into the church for his funeral service , so that she did not have to use a wheelchair . Mitchell 's mother died in November 1959 ; his poem in her honor , " A Star is a Small Reward , " was published in the '' Afro-American '' . Mitchell continued to serve as an NAACP lobbyist to Congress through the 1960s , as the civil rights movement reached new peaks in demonstrations and increasing national awareness through campaigns in the South . Mitchell helped secure passage of the era 's critical civil rights legislation : the Civil Rights Act of 1960 , the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act ( '' Title VIII '' of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 ) . He was nicknamed " the 101st U.S. Senator . " President Lyndon B. Johnson also led his administration 's War on Poverty . He appointed Daniel Patrick Moynihan as Assistant Secretary of Labor . Mitchell was criticized by some in the black community for his support of Moynihan during this period , as the latter had written a controversial book analyzing issues of the black family in the United States and poverty . Moynihan later became known as a noted U.S. Senator from New York . In addition , Mitchell defended the State of Israel during its war of 1967 against Arab states and was criticized by some . Mitchell was among the African-American leaders with whom President Johnson met after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. , was assassinated in April 1968
assassinated
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Clarence Mitchell Jr.