{"id":40557,"date":"2016-06-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo\/"},"modified":"2016-06-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T00:00:00","slug":"black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Actor Achieves Breakthrough Role on &#8216;Mr. Rogers&#8217; Neighborhood&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 2016 episode on NPR&#39;s &quot;StoryCorps&quot; interviewed Francois Clemmons, who played the role of friendly Officer Clemmons on <em class=\"citation\">Mr. Rogers&#39; Neighborhood<\/em> for over 25 years. Clemmons was the first black actor to have a recurring role on a children&#39;s television series. Surprisingly, Fred Rogers was clearly going out on a limb to cast Clemmons as a police officer. Clemmons knew this and expressed his reservations: &quot;I grew up in the ghetto. I did not have a positive opinion of police officers. Policeman were siccing police dogs and water hoses on people. And I really had a hard time putting myself in that role. So I was not excited about being Officer Clemmons at all.&quot; Still, Clemmons eventually agreed to take on the role.<\/p>\n\n<p>Over the decades he spent on the show, there&#39;s one scene in particular that Clemmons remembers with great emotion. It was from an episode that aired in 1969, in which Rogers had been resting his feet in a plastic pool on a hot day. &quot;He invited me to come over and to rest my feet in the water with him,&quot; Clemmons recalls. &quot;The icon Fred Rogers not only was showing my brown skin in the tub with his white skin as two friends, but as I was getting out of that tub, he was helping me dry my feet.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>He says he&#39;ll never forget the day Rogers wrapped up the program, as he always did, by hanging up his sweater and saying, &quot;You make every day a special day just by being you, and I like you just the way you are.&quot; This time in particular, Rogers had been looking right at Clemmons, and after they wrapped he walked over. Clemmons asked him, &quot;Fred, were you talking to me?&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;Yes, I have been talking to you for years,&quot; Rogers said, as Clemmons recalls. &quot;But you heard me today.&quot; &quot;It was like telling me I&#39;m OK as a human being,&quot; Clemmons says. &quot;That was one of the most meaningful experiences I&#39;d ever had.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: Of course remember that Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister. As such, there&#39;s every reason to believe that he was coming from a place of conviction here regarding what the Christian faith says about human identity. Namely, that you are who God sees you to be, which is a forgiven sinner, a child of God, a son in whom he is well pleased.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3492,3500,3511,3526,3726,3798,3877,3961,4021,4153,4187,4311,4315,4428,4599,4616,4693,4758,4759,4761,4792,4818,5005,5007,5213],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-40557","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-bigotry","tax_ctp_tags-black-history-month","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-brotherly-love","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-discrimination","tax_ctp_tags-equality","tax_ctp_tags-family-ministry","tax_ctp_tags-friendship","tax_ctp_tags-holidays","tax_ctp_tags-humanity","tax_ctp_tags-judging-others","tax_ctp_tags-justice","tax_ctp_tags-martin-luther-king-jr-day","tax_ctp_tags-partiality","tax_ctp_tags-peacemakers","tax_ctp_tags-prejudice","tax_ctp_tags-race","tax_ctp_tags-race-relations","tax_ctp_tags-racism","tax_ctp_tags-relationship","tax_ctp_tags-respect","tax_ctp_tags-social-action","tax_ctp_tags-social-conditions","tax_ctp_tags-unity"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Black Actor Achieves Breakthrough Role on &#039;Mr. Rogers&#039; Neighborhood&#039; - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Actor Achieves Breakthrough Role on &#039;Mr. Rogers&#039; Neighborhood&#039; - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A 2016 episode on NPR&#039;s &quot;StoryCorps&quot; interviewed Francois Clemmons, who played the role of friendly Officer Clemmons on Mr. Rogers&#039; Neighborhood for over 25 years. 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Surprisingly, Fred Rogers was clearly going out on a limb to cast Clemmons as Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo\/\",\"name\":\"Black Actor Achieves Breakthrough Role on 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-06T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-06T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Black Actor Achieves Breakthrough Role on &#8216;Mr. Rogers&#8217; Neighborhood&#8217;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Black Actor Achieves Breakthrough Role on 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/black-actor-achieves-breakthrough-role-on-mr-rogers-neighbo\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Black Actor Achieves Breakthrough Role on 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' - CT Pastors","og_description":"A 2016 episode on NPR&#39;s &quot;StoryCorps&quot; interviewed Francois Clemmons, who played the role of friendly Officer Clemmons on Mr. Rogers&#39; Neighborhood for over 25 years. 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