Upon graduating high school, Clarke earned a scholarship to Oberlin College in Ohio, where she received a B.A. in 1986. She also won a Congressional internship in 1983. Before coming to the City Council, Clarke was Director of Business Development for the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation and was the first Director of the Bronx portion of the New York City Empowerment Zone.
For a decade, Una Clarke held the seat her daughter now holds and US Congressman Major Owens broke with Democratic Party leadership to support Una's candidacy. Owens was the only elected official from Brooklyn to do so and he continued to campaign for Una despite the fact that he was then recovering from quintupple bypass heart surgery. At Owen's insistence, the 40th district was drawn in such a way as to help assure the election of the Council's first member of Carribbean descent. In 2000, Una ran to unseat Owens, telling reporters she owed him nothing, but she failed to oust him.
In the 2004 election cycle, Yvette Clarke, with only two and a half years service as an elected official, and the 41st councilmanic district's Tracy L. Boyland both ran for Owen's seat in the 2004 election cycle, an act that many saw as outright betrayal.
Though campaigning as populist Democrats, Yvette and Una Clarke have long maintained ties with prominent New York State Republicans. Under Governor George Pataki, Una has been a staff director for the Empire State Development Corporation, a patronage appointment, and the elder Ms. Clarke spearheaded the 2002 Pataki campaign among New Yorkers of Carribbean descent, despite the fact that Yvette endorsed Pataki oponent H. Carl McCall, the first black ever to be nominated by a major party for governor of New York State. Una became the treasurer of Yvette's campaign for Congress despite the fact that New York City's Campaign Finance Board imposed its largest ever fine ($58,943) on Una Clarke's campaign for City Council (the CFB was later forced to pursue payment of the fine in court). When Una ran against Congressman Owens four years ago, she delayed the disclosure of her major contributors until after she lost the primary, missing federal deadlines in violation of FEC regulations.
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