Chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 until his death in 1988. Graduated from Dunbar High School and Howard University in the Class of 1954 (Bachelor of Arts and Master's degrees). He served in the United States Army for three years during the Cold War conflict from 1954 to 1957. He succeeded his father, Clarence Pendleton, Sr. as the head coach of the swimming team, where under his watch, they won ten championships in eleven years. He also coached rowing, baseball and football. From 1968-1970, he served as recreation coordinator under the Model Cities Program in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1970, he was named director of the Urban Affairs Dept of the National Recreation and Park Association. In 1972, then-San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson (later US Senator and California's 36th Governor) recruited Pendleton to head the Model Cities program in San Diego, California. Four years later, he was named director of the San Diego branch of the National Urban League. Previously a liberal Democrat, Pendleton switched his party affiliation to the Republicans in 1980 to support the successful campaign of former California Governor Ronald Reagan for President of the United States. Upon taking office in 1981, President Reagan named Pendleton to serve as Chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights: the nomination was confirmed by the Republican-controlled US Senate and Pendleton took office on Nov. 16, 1981, making him the first African American to hold the position. Under his tenure, Pendleton staunchly supported the Reagan administration's social agenda: opposing the use of cross-town school busing to achieving racial balance among pupils, questioned affirmative action policies because he felt African Americans would be successful in accomplishing their goals without special consideration being written into law. Denounced the feminist concept of comparable worth in the establishment of male and female pay scales, congressional funding for the agency was reduced because of Pendleton's staunch conservative initiatives and agenda including attacks on the liberal civil rights establishment, internal debates of the fundamental principles of equality under the law. He was re-elected commission chairman in 1983. He collapsed while working out at the San Diego Hilton Club and was pronounced dead at Mission Bay Hospital from a heart attack at age 57. He was succeeded as US Civil Rights Commission Chairman by William B. Allen. A memorial bench dedicated in Pendleton's honor is located in the De Anza Cove section of Mission Bay Park in San Diego.