Septima Poinsette Clark (1898–1987) was a quiet force who shaped the soul of the Civil Rights Movement through something radical: teaching. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, she believed literacy and education were tools for liberation. Her greatest legacy came through the creation of Citizenship Schools, grassroots classrooms that taught African Americans to read, write, and understand their rights so they could register to vote and become leaders.
Fired from her teaching job in 1956 for being a member of the NAACP, Clark didn’t back down. Instead, she expanded her work with the Highlander Folk School and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, training thousands of teachers and activists throughout the South. Many of her students went on to become civil rights leaders in their own right.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called her work “the key to the movement.” Yet because she was a Black woman in a male-dominated movement, Clark’s contributions were often overlooked. Still, she remained committed to justice through knowledge, saying, “I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth.”
In 1979, she received the Living Legacy Award from President Jimmy Carter. But her true legacy lives on in the power of informed people standing up for their rights, not just in courtrooms or marches, but in classrooms, living rooms, and voting booths.
Gone but not forgotten. Her life reminds us: freedom begins with learning.
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