Ready From Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement

Septima Clarke played one of the most essential, but little-recognized roles in the Civil Rights Movement. Born in 1898 in Charleston, South Carolina, she was a public school teacher until 1956, when she was dismissed for refusing to disavow her membership in the National Association for the advancement of Colored People. Subsequently, she worked for the Highlander Folk School, helping to set up Citizenship Schools throughout the South where Black adults could learn to read and prepare to vote. During the 1960s she worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. From 1978 to 1983 she served as the first Black woman on the Charleston School Board. This is a first-person narrative of her life in the context of the Civil Rights Movement. Her story constitutes a major thread in the tapestry of that movement.

In 1979, Brown spent a week interviewing Clark, who was then 81 and had spent a good part of her life struggling for civil rights in South Carolina. Brown subsequently edited and rearranged Clark's story, which is variously told in standard English, an African-inspired version spoken on St. John's Island, S.C., and Charlestonese. The result is a rich taleClark was a teacher for years, until she was fired in 1956 because of her membership in the NAACP. Soon she became involved in the Citizenship Schools, which trained black adults to read and write in order to be eligible to vote. Later she worked with Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and others in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Today near 90, Clark carries on her struggle, working with black women, who as a group, she maintains, have to face greater obstacles than most other people. This is a poignant story, told with hope and humanity.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.