"THE ARC OF HISTORY IS LONG"

“THE ARC OF HISTORY IS LONG”

Septima Poinsette Clark was born on May 3, 1898, six months before the violent white coup in Wilmington, North Carolina, overthrown the democratically elected Black city government and established a reign of terror, which Clark and many others would have to combat in order to try to bend that arc of history towards justice.  She was born in Charleston, SC – her father had been enslaved, and her mom was from Haiti.  She came to believe in the power of education and in organizing against oppression, and for her efforts, she was often called the “Queen Mother” or the “Grandmother” of the Civil Rights Movement.

She began school at age 6 in a home school for Black kids, and later she went to a new Black school in Charleston for 6-8th graders, taught by all white teachers.  She graduated from high school in 1916, but there was no money for college, even though she was an excellent student.  She took the state exam to become a gteacher at age 18 and passed.  No Black teachers were allowed in Charleston, so she took a job teaching on John’s Island.  There she would begin a teaching career that lasted for the rest of her life, settling in Columbia, SC, where she got her college degree from Benedict College and a Master’s degree from Hampton University.  During this time, she spent summers at Atlanta University, studying with W.E.B. Dubois.

She also got actively involved with the NAACP, but in 1956 the state of South Carolina passed a law that banned city or state employees from being members of or having involvement with civil rights groups.  She was upfront in her refusal to to leave the NAACP, and she was fired from her job in the Charleston City Schools, effectively losing her 40 year pension.  A Black teachers’ sorority held a fundraiser for her, but no member would have their picture taken with her for fear that they would lose their own jobs.

This terrible set of events became a turning point for Clark.  She had been introduced to the Highlander Folk School in Knoxville, and had attended some workshops there.  In 1955, she helped to develop some “Citizenship Schools” in which participants were taught literacy as well as organizing techniques.  Because of her teaching experience and organizing ability, Clark became a leader in this development.  As Myles Horton, the founder of Highlander, put it, “we needed people to do real education with people who had been oppressed and mistreated.  Septima was a true leader for that.”  Highlander already was in trouble with the Tennessee state authorities because of their just8ce activities.  For the moment, however, Clark became the director of their Citizenship Schools, and she brought in her niece Bernice Robinson to develop the program.  In a compressed week’s workshop, they found that they could turn sharecroppers and other “uneducated” Black people into potential voters.

     In the summer of 1955, she became a mentor for a woman from Montgomery, who was interested in learning of more ways to resist the racial injustice of Alabama and to seek ways to change that injustice.  Rosa Parks was looking for ways to stand up when she came to Highlander that summer.  Septima Clark helped her to find her fire, and just a few months later, Parks would not stand up – she would remain seated and ignite a Civil Rights Revolution.

Highlander was closed by the state of Tennessee in 1961, after bogus hearings led by Bruce Bennett, attorney general of Arkansas.  (See Horton’s autobiography “The Long Haul” for that story).  Clark was hired at SCLC to found and expand the “Citizenship School” concept.  It took off all over the South, and it became a model for developing ways of resistance.  Like Ella Baker before her, however, Clark ran into the strong sexism of the Black male leaders of SCLC.  In spite of this. Clark was the first woman to gain a position on the SCLC Board.

She retired in 1970 from SCLC, and she was able to get her pension reinstated which had been denied to her in 1956.  She also served two terms on the Charleston County School Board.  She died in 1987, and at her funeral, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery gave her eulogy,  saying that her courageous and pioneering work made way for rights for Black people and for women.  One of her famous quotes described her ability to make a way out of no way:  “I have a great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift.” 

    She shook up the white South and got us moving – those same oppressive forces are rising again, so let us find our place in that chaos and do some bending towards justice.