François Clemmons

When he earned the role as Officer Clemmons on the award-winning television series, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” Dr. François Scarborough Clemmons made history as the first African-American actor to have a recurring role on a children’s program. A new, wide world opened for him—but one that also required him to make painful personal choices and sacrifices.

From New York to Russia, Berlin to California, Dr. Clemmons has performed for audiences around the world and remains a beloved figure, bringing joy to millions of adults and children across generations and borders. His book, "Officer Clemmons: A Memoir," details his incredible life story, beginning with his early years in Alabama and Ohio, marked by family trauma and loss, through his studies as a music major at Oberlin College, where Dr. Clemmons began to investigate and embrace his homosexuality, to a chance encounter with Fred Rogers that changed the whole course of both men’s lives, leading to a deep, spiritual friendship and mentorship spanning nearly 40 years.

Dr. Clemmons’ background is in vocal performance, having won the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions in Pittsburgh and winning a position in the Met Studio. He sang professionally with the Met for seven seasons in more than 70 roles, and he won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording as part of the cast of the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus recording of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Following his opera career, he had the opportunity to join "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood" and created the role of Officer Clemmons, the friendly local police officer in the “Neighborhood of Make-Believe.” In the role, he acted in the barrier-breaking scene in which Mister Rogers invites Clemmons to soak his feet in the wading pool together on a hot day—sending a powerful message of inclusion at a time when there was civil unrest over pool segregation policies across the U.S.

In 1986, Dr. Clemmons founded the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble, a group devoted to the preservation and performance of American Negro spirituals. From 1997 until his retirement in 2013, he was the Alexander Twilight Artist in Residence and director of the Martin Luther King Spiritual Choir at Middlebury College. He continues to live and work in Vermont. In addition to his memoir, he has authored a series of children’s stories titled “Little ButterCup and the Majic Cane” and a volume of poetry, “A Place of My Own.” Dr. Clemmons has also published a volume of choral arrangements of spirituals titled “Songs for Today” and composed a stage musical, “My Name is Hayes,” based on the life of the great tenor Roland Hayes.