Charlestonian Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987) was born at this location and educated at the Avery Institute a few blocks away. In 1956 Clark was fired from her job as a Charleston public school teacher because of her membership in the NAACP. Clark’s citizenship schools taught literacy skills to African Americans in an era when many states used literacy tests to prevent African Americans from registering to vote. Her activism was so successful and influential that Martin Luther King, Jr. called her “the mother of the movement” and brought her with him to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. This marker was erected May 3, 2018 (Clark’s 110th birthday) by students in the College of Charleston’s Teaching Fellows program. Courtesy of the College of Charleston.Download Original File
