Claude Nathaniel Bennett was born on November 29, 1866 to Nathaniel Jones and Eugenia Pearce Bennett.  He attended Harlem High School and Emory University and started his career as a school teacher.  However, he left the area in 1890 as a correspondent for The Atlanta Journal.  While working in Washington, D.C., Bennett caught the eye of Hoke Smith, from Georgia, and became Smith’s secretary while he served as the Secretary of the Interior during President Grover Cleveland’s second administration.  In 1896, Bennett founded the Congressional Information Bureau, which provided data to Congress and maintained a bureau for international business in all branches of government. In 1915, Bennett married Harriett Graves of Georgia. He was a President of the Southern Society, a member of the National Press Club, the Washington Society of Fine Arts, Phi Delta Theta, Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of Confederate Veterans, the University Club, and the City Club. He died in Washington, D.C. on June 13, 1926, from bronchial pneumonia.

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