Septima Poinsette Clark

All About Ms. Septima Poinsette Clark

 
Septima P. Clark was an educator and civil rights activist.  She is often credited as being the Grandmother of the Civil Rights Movement.  In 1898, Ms. Clark was born in Charleston, SC.  She would go on to earn a bachelor's degree from Benedict College and a master's degree from Hampton University.  Ms. Clark taught children during the school day and illiterate adults in her own time at night. 

Ms.  Clark is most famous for establishing "Citizenship Schools".  These schools were designed to teach reading to adults throughout the Deep South, in hopes of carrying on a tradition.  The creation of citizenship schools developed from Septima Clark's teaching of adult literacy courses during her earlier career.  While the project served to increase literacy, it also served as a means to empower Black communities. Septima Clark wrote two autobiographies during her lifetime, in which she recorded her lifelong experiences. Septima P. Clark died on December 15, 1987.