Septima Poinsette Clark

How this work helped shape America

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1898 to a father born enslaved and a mother raised in Haiti, Septima Poinsette Clark became a teacher and architect of grassroots adult education. She helped develop Citizenship Schools that taught literacy, voting knowledge and civic organization to Black adults across the South. The program trained local teachers and expanded through the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, creating educational infrastructure that supported mass political participation during the civil-rights movement.