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Clark was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Her mother was a laundrywomen (free black Haitian) and her father was a former slave. They instilled the importance of education in Clark. Septima Poinsette Clark is known as the queen of the civil rights movement.
https://time.com/4213751/septima-clark-civil-rights-movement/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784884 -
Septima Poinsette Clark was regarded as the Queen of the Civil Rights Movement. Clark once wrote in 1965, "The greatest evil in our country today is not racism, but ignorance”. She helped many people become educated as well as giving them the opportunity to successfully vote.
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Clark graduated from Avery Normal School. She passed her teacher’s exam and began teaching at a black school Promise Land School on Johns Island due to segregation in Charleston. She also developed her citizenship school teachings.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/clark-septima-poinsette
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784884
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25472258 -
Clark joined the NAACP and began campaigning to allow black teachers to teach black kids in Charleston. 2/3 of the city's black population signed her petition.
https://time.com/4213751/septima-clark-civil-rights-movement/ -
In 1920, a law was passed to allow Black teachers to be employed in public education.
https://time.com/4213751/septima-clark-civil-rights-movement/ -
Clark was not content with just being allowed to teach. Along with the NAACP, she began fighting for higher salaries for black teachers in the 1920s.
https://time.com/4213751/septima-clark-civil-rights-movement/
https://snccdigital.org/people/septima-clark/ -
In 1937, Clark began studying under W.E. Dubois. In 1942, she earned her BA and in 1945, she earned her MA.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/clark-septima-poinsette -
More than 20 years after the initial campaign for equal pay, a law was finally passed. It mandated the equal pay between black and white teachers in 1945.
https://time.com/4213751/septima-clark-civil-rights-movement/ -
In 1957, Clark was fired from her teaching position due to a law that prohibited employees from belonging to an organization. Clark refused to quit the NAACP. She was a teacher for 40 years.
https://time.com/4213751/septima-clark-civil-rights-movement/ -
In the 1950s the citizenship program in Highlander Folk School was designed to teach literacy and civic rights to increase voter participation among disenfranchised blacks. Rosa Parks was also a mentee of Clark. The Voting Rights Act would've failed without this.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12238
https://snccdigital.org/people/septima-clark/
https://time.com/4213751/septima-clark-civil-rights-movement/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/189576
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/fire.2.2.0078 -
After being fired from her teaching position, Myles Horton hired Clark as the director of citizenship workshops in Monteagle, Tennessee.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/fire.2.2.0078 -
By 1958, 37 adults passed the voter registration test as a result of the first session of community schools. In 1961, the state of Tennessee forces Highlander school to shutdown. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference adopts the program and creates Citizenship Education Program.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/clark-septima-poinsette
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/clark-septima-poinsette-1898-1987/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12238 -
Over 1000 people were educated through Citizenship Schools. Clark retired from the SLCC in 1970. Clark was chosen to be part of the Charleston School Board and the Governor reinstated her pension. She was also awarded the Legacy Award in 1979 and published her second memoir in1986. Clark dies on 12/15/1987.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/clark-septima-poinsette
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784884 -
Barnett, Bernice McNair. "Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class." Gender and Society, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Jun 1993): 162-182. https://www.jstor.org/stable/189576 Blakemore, Erin. "The Woman Who Schooled the Civil Rights Movement." https://time.com/4213751/septima-clark-civil-rights-movement/
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Bloch, Nadine. "Education and Training in Nonviolent Resistance." United States Institute of Peace 394, (Oct 2016): 1-20. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12238
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Crosby, Emilye, Frazier, Nishani, Hogan, Wesley, Jeffries, Hasan Kwame, and Spencer, Robyn. "Rethinking and Un-teaching Entrenched Movement Narratives: A Virtual Roundtable." Fire!!!, Vol. 2, No. 2, Expanding the Narrative: Exploring New Aspects of the Civil Rights Movement Fifty Years Later (2013), p. 78-108. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/fire.2.2.0078
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Gyant, LaVerne and Atwater, Deborah F. "Septima Clark's Rhetorical and Ethnic Legacy: Her Message of Citizenship in the Civil Rights Movement" Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 26, No. 5 (May 1996): 577-592. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784884 Reese, Linda W. "Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987)." Feb 2008. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/clark-septima-poinsette-1898-1987/
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Schneider, Stephen. "The Sea Island Citizenship Schools: Literacy, Community Organization, and the Civil Rights Movement." National Council of Teachers of English Vol 70, No. 2 (Nov 2007): 144-167. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25472258 "Septima Clark." https://snccdigital.org/people/septima-clark/ Stanford University. "Septima Poinsette Clark." https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/clark-septima-poinsette
