Curtis McClinton, Jr.'s father-in-law, DeKoven Alexander French, attended Douglass School and graduated from Sumner High School in 1918, both African American schools in segregated Kansas City, Kansas. He then earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Kansas in 1922 and 1924 respectively. French was a member of the Epsilon branch of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at KU. He went on to earn his doctorate of medicine from Howard University Medical School in 1928.