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An educator and civil rights activist who developed the citizenship schools that enable black people to exercise their voting rights.

Septima Poinsette Clark was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. In her first years of school, she was homeschooled with other girls at their neighbors and later attended the only public school for black children in the city. The school was until the 8th grade, and afterward, she studied for a year at the private Avery Institute while working to finance her education. She could not afford college tuition, so at the age of 18, she took a test that qualified her as a teacher. Due to her color, she was not allowed to teach in Charleston, so she found a position in a school on John’s Island. During her time on the island, she worked at the school during the day, and at nights, she taught illiterate adults reading and writing with innovative learning methods she developed with everyday resources, such as the Sears catalog.

In 1919, at the age of 21, Clark returned to Charleston and taught at Avery Institute. Growing up in the segregated South, she was always aware of the discrimination against black people, but as a teacher, she noticed the deeper layers of its impact and the differences between white and black schools, such as the number of students for a teacher and the gap between teachers salaries. Clark was determined to make a change and joined the Charleston Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Her first political action was to organize her students to sign people on a petition to hire black principals to Avery Institute.

In 1923, at 25, she married Nerie David Clark, and they moved to his family house in Hickory, North Carolina. After her husband died, she moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where she taught at the Booker T. Washington High School for the next 17 years. During the summers, Clark completed her education, earning a Bachelor’s degree from Atlanta University when she was 44 and a Master’s degree from Virginia’s Hampton Institute at 48. Afterward, she came back to Charleston to take care of her ill mother while working as a teacher in the Charleston public schools and serving as an active member of the NAACP.

In 1956, at the age of 58, Clark was appointed as vice president of the Charleston branch of the NAACP. In that same year, the South Carolina legislature ruled that city or state employees are not permitted to be involved with civil rights organizations. Clark refused to resign from the NAACP, and she was laid off and lost her 40 years pension. At the time, she worked with the Highlander Folk School – an education center for social justice leadership in Monteagle, Tennessee. After getting fired from the Charleston public schools system, she was hired for a full-time position as a director of workshops at the Highlander Folk School.

This school was founded in 1932 as a response to the legislation in the Southern states that required literacy tests before vote registration, a role that made it harder for black citizens to vote. Under Clark’s leadership, the literacy program expanded. She hired more teachers and began to teach reading, writing, the rights, and duties of US citizens, how to fill out voter registration forms, driver’s license exams, and familiarizing the students with civil rights organizations.

In 1961, Highlander Folk School was closed, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) took charge of the workshop. Clark was appointed director of education and teaching, the first woman to receive a position on its board. In this role, she hired new teachers and was in charge of the training and the curriculum. The SCLC changed the workshop’s name into the Citizenship Education Program (CEP) and established approximately 800 citizenship schools throughout the South. In less than a decade, the CEP had trained more than 10,000 teachers and taught more than 25,000 people. Clark’s citizenship schools became the cornerstone of the Civil Rights Movement, encouraging people to gain literacy skills, know their rights, and exercise their voting rights.

In 1970, at the age of 72, Clark retired from the SCLC to establish similar workshops for the American Field Service. She worked with the Tuberculosis Association and the Charleston Health Department, and at 77, she joined the Charleston County School Board, serving in this position for two terms. She passed away at the age of 87.

HerStory is included in several guided tours in Charleston, SC:

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“I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth. We need to be taught to study rather than believe, to inquire rather than to affirm.”

Fun Facts

She became known as the grandmother of the Civil Rights Movement and as "Queen mother."
She had two children; the firstborn died in infancy.
She taught Rosa Parks in a workshop in Highlander Folk School. A few months afterward, Parks refused to give up her seat, and the Montgomery bus boycott started.
She fought and received her teacher's pension, which got canceled in 1956 because of her involvement in the NAACP.
She was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
She published two autobiographies: Echo In My Soul (1962) and Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement (1979), which won the American Book Award.
The Septima Clark Public Charter School in Washington, DC, is named in her honor.
Septima P. Clark Memorial Park in Charleston, SC, is named in her honor.
The Minor planet 6238 Septimaclark is named in her honor.