Clark, Septima Poinsette (1898–1987)

African-American educator and civil-rights activist. Born Septima Poinsette, May 3, 1898, in Charleston, South Carolina; died Dec 15, 1987, on John's Island, South Carolina; dau. of Peter Porcher Poinsette (born a slave on the Poinsette plantation, later worked as caterer on a steamship) and Victoria Warren Anderson Poinsette (freeborn in Charleston and reared in Haiti); graduated (12th grade) from Avery Normal Institute, a private school to train black teachers in Charleston, SC, 1916; Benedict College, AB, 1942; Hampton Institute, MA, 1946; m. Nerie David Clark, May 1920 (died of kidney failure, Dec 1925); children: daughter (who died within a month of birth); son, Nerie David Jr. (b. 1925).

A legend of the civil-rights era, was the driving force behind the influential Southern Christian Leadership Conference Citizenship Schools; unable to teach in Charleston public schools because of race, obtained a position at the Promiseland School on John's Island, SC; took a position with Avery Normal School and joined in a political crusade to change the law barring black teachers in Charleston public schools (1919); enrolled in college, earning bachelor's degree (1942) and master's (1946); as a longtime member of NAACP, refused to renounce her affiliation when South Carolina passed a law prohibiting NAACP membership for state or city employees; thus, was fired from teaching job at Henry Archer School (1956); hired as director of education for Highlander Folk School (HFS) in Tennessee for adult literacy programs; taught skills to enable deep South blacks to qualify to vote and become effective citizens in her Citizenship Schools, based at HFS; because of harassment by Tennessee officials at Highlander, her citizenship training was moved to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), where she continued to conduct literacy training programs that substantially increased the rolls of black voters (early 1960s); retired from SCLC (1970); elected to Charleston School Board (1976). The Septima P. Clark Expressway runs through Charleston (1978).

See also autobiographies Echo In My Soul (Dutton, 1962) and (with Cynthia Stokes Brown) Ready from Within (Wild Trees, 1986); and Women in World History.