Activism and city council tenure

Lightner was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,^[12] and the Democratic Party, and held moderate political views.^[13] He was a member of the "Oval Table Gang", an informal group of community leaders that met in Ralph Campbell Sr.'s home to discuss strategies to desegregate Raleigh schools, plan demonstrations, and assist black candidates for public office.^[14] He was elected to the Raleigh City Council in 1967,^[10] thus becoming the second black person to serve on the body.^[15] As he became increasingly involved in politics, Lightner handed over the responsibilities of his funeral home to a manager.^[16] During his council tenure he served on the Law and Finance Committee^[17] and chaired a committee tasked with studying mass transit.^[18] He supported a proposal by community activists to change the election method of city council seats from an at-large model to a district system; it was later implemented after a referendum.^[19] In his third term (1971–1973) he served as Mayor pro tempore.^[10]

Mayor of Raleigh

In 1973 Lightner announced his candidacy for the office of Mayor of Raleigh. The 1973 election was the first contest in which the mayor was to be directly elected,^{[lower-alpha 1]} instead of being selected by the city council.^[15] The change had been made via referendum the previous year at the behest of community organizations, collectively dubbed the "Community Coalition".^[20] They felt that municipal offices were being too heavily influenced by business interests at a time when Raleigh's population was rapidly growing and various development projects were being proposed. In the election Lightner faced G. Wesley Williams, the executive director of the Raleigh Merchants Bureau who was popular among local businessmen.^[15] He characterized Williams as a lobbyist for Raleigh's business interests.^[2] Though Lightner was a black candidate in a Southern city, the topic of race did not play a significant role in the campaign.^{[15][lower-alpha 2]} He received the endorsement of the retiring mayor, Thomas W. Bradshaw, and Raleigh's two daily newspapers, the Raleigh Times and The News & Observer.^[18] Though he trailed his opponent in the primary contest by 700 votes,^[21] Lightner won the November 6 election^[7] with 17,348 votes, or 52.9 percent of the ballots, cast in his favor.^[22] His support came from a coalition of blacks—who comprised less than 16% of all registered voters—and white suburban residents who were growing increasingly concerned about urban sprawl.^[23] His victory was given national media attention, as he was the first black mayor of a large, mostly-white city in the South.^{[15][lower-alpha 3]} Most observers were surprised by his win.^[24]

Lightner acted as a charter member of the Southern Conference of Black Mayors.^[1] He also actively participated in the National League of Cities—including service on its steering committee^[12]—and made personal connections with members of the federal administration and other black mayors.^[25] In 1974 he devised the Downtown Housing Improvement Corporation to "help people with low incomes find housing."^[26] That year he also supported the creation of 18 neighborhood "Citizen Advisory Councils", which were meant to facilitate resident input on housing, transportation, and governmental accountability in the city. Lightner hoped that instituting the councils would also make it easier for Raleigh to earn block grants from the federal government, but this did not occur.^[27] During his mayoral tenure the city council bolstered floodplain construction regulations, rejected large road construction projects, and instituted a mass transit system. Raleigh was also bestowed with the All-America City Award during his term,^[20] with the awarding organization, the National Civic League, citing in-part the institution of the Citizen Advisory Councils.^[28] In November 1974 he supported an unsuccessful attempt to create a police review board, citing mistrust of police impartiality by "a great segment of the population".^[29]

Though his tenure was largely uncontroversial, members of Lightner's family were befallen by legal troubles.^[30] In November 1974 police arrested a woman in Pittsboro for shoplifting. Investigators found she had a notebook with the names and clothing sizes of several North Carolinians, including Clarence and Marguerite Lightner. Police theorized that the woman had been stealing items on order.^[31] On November 26, 1974, Marguerite Lightner was arrested for conspiracy to receive stolen goods;^[30] prosecutors announced they had no intentions of charging the mayor.^[31] Lightner was criticized for refusing to comment publicly on the case.^[13] Marguerite Lightner's defense attorney suggested during her trial that the prosecutor had pursued charges against her because she was the mayor's wife.^[32] She was ultimately acquitted, but in July 1975 Lightner's son, Lawrence, was found in contempt of court after allegedly making obscene gestures to a judge (Lawrence was in court to face assault charges which were later withdrawn).^[30] Announcing his bid for reelection the following month, Lightner appealed to the electorate to ignore his relatives' problems and evaluate his performance as mayor.^[33] Scrutiny was brought against him personally for urging the city to purchase a pool from his former campaign manager, and for his backing of a planning commissioner that had run afoul of local activists for maintaining close ties with real estate developers.^[20] In early October his daughter, Debra, was indicted for credit card fraud. The mayoral primary election took place the following week.^[34] Lightner faced two challengers for his position. Though they avoided discussing the Lightner family's problems, the legal troubles damaged Lightner's reputation. Jyles Coggins won the primary, and Lightner placed last with only 5,644 votes.^[30] He urged the black electorate to unify behind Coggins,^[35] and his term ended in December.^[10]

Later activities

In 1977 State Senator John W. Winters of the 14th district (representing portions of Wake, Lee and Harnett counties) resigned.^[36] Governor Jim Hunt, at the advice of the executive committee of the Democratic Party of the 14th district, appointed Lightner to fill the vacancy on August 3. He was sworn in on August 9^[37] and served the remainder of Winters' term through 1978.^[8] Over the course of his term he cosponsored 10 bills.^[38] In 1979 he chaired the North Carolina Black Caucus.^[39] Three years later Lightner served as general chairman of the Raleigh chapter of the United Negro College Fund.^[40] In November 1983 Walter Mondale appointed him to the steering committee of the North Carolina branch of his 1984 presidential campaign.^[41] Lightner eventually rose to serve as co-chairman of the state section of the campaign.^[42] In 1986 Lightner served as co-chair of Terry Sanford's U.S. Senate campaign.^[43]

After Lightner pointed out the state of limited economic growth in southeast Raleigh, the city assembled a team under Mayor Avery C. Upchurch to promote commercial development in the area.^[44] He served as chairman of the Southeast Raleigh Improvement Commission from 1993 to 2001, where he led a study of economic development, implemented the Small Business Success Program, and created an incubation program for small businesses.^[8] He acted as chair of the Board of Trustees of Saint Augustine's College and was a member of the Board of Trustees of North Carolina State University for 10 years.^[7] Lightner attended the 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000 Democratic National Conventions as a delegate.^[45][46] He retired from the funeral business in 2000.^[47]