Eva M. Clayton (Born September 16, 1934) is a politician from the state of North Carolina. Clayton was born in Savannah, Georgia and she graduated from Johnson C. Smith University. She was one of the people who worked on Soul City, North Carolina before she became the assistant secretary for community development for the North Carolina state department of Natural Resources and Community Development. She was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1992. Clayton and Mel Watt were the first African Americans elected to the House from North Carolina since 1898. Clayton had a liberal voting record, although she opposed bills relating to trade with China since the bills would harm her district. Clayton retired from Congress at the end of her fifth term in 2003.
