Septima Poinsette Clark
Teacher and civil rights activist
Septima P. Clark (1898-1987), from Charleston, South Carolina, taught throughout the state. In 1956, the state passed a law that banned city and state employees from joining Civil Rights groups. Clark was fired after refusing to keep her NAACP membership secret. She pioneered grassroots citizenship education, which linked skills like reading and writing with political organizing. Clark conducted workshops at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. Rosa Parks took part in one of Clark’s workshops a few months before helping launch the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. Clark established Citizenship Schools in 1957. The first class was taught on Johns Island, South Carolina. Citizenship Schools helped African Americans develop basic reading and writing skills and educated them on their constitutional rights as U.S. citizens.
Image courtesy of The State Newspaper Photograph Archive, Richland Library