William Clifford worked for several years at the Woodruff Palace Car Company before obtaining a job in the Cuyahoga County Clerk’s Office in 1888. At that time, he was the highest-ever paid African-American man in local, county, or state government. He was married to Carrie Williams, a noted African-American author and orator who founded the Ohio State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs and was a member of the Niagara Movement, a predecessor of the NAACP. Clifford held several clerk positions at the Federal Building in Cleveland and also within the Republican Party, casting the deciding vote electing Marcus A. Hanna to the U.S. Senate in 1888. He was twice elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, serving from 1894-1895 and 1898-1899. He graduated from Cleveland Law School in 1902 and is believed to be the school’s first African-American male alumnus. Clifford was appointed to a position in the Auditor’s Office in the U.S. War Department in 1908, where he served until his death.