Septima clark biography
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Septima Clark
Septima Clark at Highlander Folk School, undated, Highlander Research and Education Center Records, WHS
May 3, – December 15,
Raised in Charleston, South Carolina
Septima Poinsette Clark pioneered the link between education and political organizing, especially political organizing aimed at gaining the right to vote. “Literacy means liberation,” she stressed knowing that education was key to gaining political, economic, and social power.
Long before SNCC’s Freedom Schools, Clark was developing a grassroots citizenship education program that used everyday materials to think about big questions. From reading catalogues to writing on dry cleaner bags instead of chalkboards, Clark not only funnen creative ways to teach literacy but also helped people become leaders. “Don’t ever think that everything went right. It didn’t,” she acknowledged. “Many times there were failures. But we had to jord over those failures and work until we could get them ironed out.”
Clark
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Septima Poinsette Clark
American activist
Septima Poinsette Clark (May 3, &#; December 15, ) was an African Americaneducator and civil rightsactivist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and civil rights for African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement.[1] Septima Clark's work was commonly under-appreciated by Southern male activists.[2] She became known as the "Queen Mother" or "Grandmother" of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.[3]Martin Luther King Jr. commonly referred to Clark as "The Mother of the Movement".[2] Clark's argument for her position in the Civil Rights Movement was one that claimed "knowledge could empower marginalized groups in ways that formal legal equality couldn't."[2]
Early life
[edit]Clark was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 3, Her life in Charleston was greatly affected by the era of Reconstruct
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Septima Poinsette Clark was a civil rights activist born in Charleston, South Carolina in She attended the Avery Normal Institute and graduated in When she was 18, Clark started her career as a school teacher in a one room schoolhouse. She wanted to do more to advance the rights of African Americans and she joined the Charleston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Many southern states enforced segregation until the mids, meaning that white schools did not allow African American students to attend. Due to the color of her skin, Clark was not allowed to teach in the Charleston public school system, and instead she had to accept teaching positions in rural school districts. Clark and others thought this was unfair and they protested to win African Americans the right to teach at Charleston public schools. The campaign was successful and Clark was convinced that social activism had the power to better the lives of African Americans.
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