{"id":46,"featured":0,"modified":"2025-01-24 20:59:42","latitude":32.78138341506008401893268455751240253448486328125,"longitude":-79.9364654192197150450738263316452503204345703125,"title":"Septima P. Clark Birthplace, 105 Wentworth","address":"105 Wentworth, Charleston SC 29401","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/8b969f915526250a15a93dbb3d42cc2f.jpg","creator":["Shannon Wait"],"description":"

At 105 Wentworth Street stands College of Charleston\u2019s Kappa Sigma Fraternity house. Beyond the surface of a residential home for the College\u2019s frat life, this property holds a special part of Charleston\u2019s Black history. On May 3rd, 1898, Septima Poinsette <\/span>(she later became Clark when she married Nerie Clark<\/span> in 1920<\/span>) <\/span>was born on this site. Clark was a civil rights activist who helped establish citizenship schools on Johns Island in 1957 that later spread throughout the South. Over the years, she served as a mentor to young Black women through organizations such as the YWCA. She <\/span>emphasized the<\/span> importanc<\/span>e for Black people and communities of color to be<\/span> political<\/span>ly<\/span> involve<\/span>d<\/span> and her activism led to noteworthy awards and accomplishments. In 1972, she was the first African American member elected to the Charleston County School Board. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter awarded <\/span>her<\/span> with the Living Legacy Award<\/span> and in 1982, the state of <\/span>South Carolina awarded <\/span>her<\/span> with the Order of the Palmetto, the most esteemed honor for civilians. She passed away in 1987 at the Sea Island Health Center, a facility <\/span>established by alumni of the Johns Island Citizenship School. 105 Wentworth\u2019s significance to Charleston history is clearly remarkable.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The property at 105 Wentworth Street was the home of her parents, Peter <\/span>Porcher <\/span>Poinsette (b. 1850) and Victoria Warren Anderson Poinsette (b. 1870). Peter<\/span>, an enslaved man,<\/span> was born <\/span>on <\/span>Joel<\/span> Poinsett Plantation near Georgetown. <\/span>Victoria<\/span>\u2019s family was free before the civil war and Victoria herself was<\/span> born in Charleston and<\/span> reared<\/span> in Haiti<\/span>. <\/span>Victoria and Peter married in <\/span>the early 1890s. <\/span>After giving birth to Septima and Peter Poinsette Jr., the family moved from Wentworth in 1904 to 17 Henrietta Street<\/span>.<\/span> Currently, all that marks 17 Henrietta Street is a plaque that <\/span>is<\/span> behind the<\/span> historic Mother Emanuel AME <\/span>C<\/span>hurch.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the early twentieth century, <\/span>Wraggborough<\/span> was home to many <\/span>diverse types<\/span> of people; it was home to African Americans, Germans, Irish, and Italians. In 1948, Septima P. Clark <\/span>purchased<\/span> 17 Henrietta. This was a noteworthy accomplishment<\/span> since<\/span> homeownership <\/span>constituted<\/span> some form of citizenship. The segregation period hindered the ability for African Americans to <\/span>p<\/span>urchase<\/span> property at this time. Clark\u2019s impact on Charleston\u2019s history <\/span>was not limited to just<\/span> being a property owner<\/span>. <\/span>She focused her attention <\/span>on<\/span> racial justice for all children and adults in the country, but specifically in South Carolina. Her life was dedicated to preserving a quality and just education system during the Jim Crow era and beyond.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a teenager, Septima went to the Avery Normal Institute to become a teacher during a time when Charleston County did not <\/span>allow Black educators to instruct white children<\/span> or in city schools<\/span>.<\/span> Due to this ordinance, she started teaching on Johns Island in 1916 with the help of Reverend E.B. Burroughs<\/span>. <\/span>In 191<\/span>9<\/span>, she went back to Avery to further her teaching career. While at Avery, the young educator began participating in door-to-door campaigns <\/span>to<\/span> obtain enough signatures that would <\/span>permit Black educators to teach at Black schools, thereby replacing white <\/span>educators in Black schools,<\/span> which<\/span> was the norm.<\/span> The<\/span> campaign was successful, as Charleston passed a law that opened the door to Black educators. Clark saw the importance for Black students to have teachers who understood their lives and situations from <\/span>first<\/span>-hand experience<\/span>. <\/span>People of color needed to have teachers and role models to show them what their futures could look like<\/span>. <\/span>This position of authority for African Americans had been denied to them until this point<\/span>. <\/span>Despite this victory for African Americans in Charleston, segregation left <\/span>them<\/span> to face inequality within the school system<\/span>. <\/span>Prior to 1954, there was \u201clittle attempt to provide adequate education for Negro citizens. The school year was broken up by the cotton crop, the tobacco crop and any other crop which needed harvest or care.\u201d A school year divided by crop seasons can be explained as an underlying legacy of slavery in the South under the Jim Crow era.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clark explained how <\/span>inequitable<\/span> the school system was for Black youth prior to 1954:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But what of those who received their training prior to 1954? Those were the bleak years of so called separate but equal facilities which always managed to be separate, but which left the <\/span><\/i>Negro<\/span><\/i> child in a one-room school with a small blackboard, a bucket, a dipper<\/span><\/i>[,]<\/span><\/i> and the battered textbooks that were passed down from the white school children after they were too ragged for their use. <\/span><\/i>In spite of<\/span><\/i> the <\/span><\/i>inequity<\/span><\/i>, this system has proven detrimental to the masses of both races.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her<\/span> words expressed the difficulty that children endured in their education because of the color of their skin<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clark spoke <\/span>about<\/span> inequality in the education system at a time when civil rights movements were becoming stronger than ever. Her activism was inspired by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She witnessed firsthand how difficult it was for Black men and women to participate in the electoral system due to citizenship tests at the polls. As a method to combat the disenfranchisement of the Black electorate, <\/span>she<\/span> helped develop citizenship schools in the South as an extension of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference\u2019s Citizenship Education Program. The goals of the program were as follows: 1.) To provide basic literacy skills, 2.) To feed, educate, or heal an individual regardless of the community they came from, or system of government they identified with \u201cwhich has contributed to the deprived state of the individual<\/span>,\u201d<\/span> and 3.) To train one or two people to help them teach their neighbors about the way in which the ballot is used to create and continue the rule of Liberty and Justice for all.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1956, Clark was fired from the Charleston County school system <\/span>because she was<\/span> a member of the N<\/span>ational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)<\/span>. <\/span>Unfortunately, it was <\/span>common<\/span> for African Americans to face discrimination<\/span> for <\/span>membership<\/span> in <\/span>this civil rights organizatio<\/span>n<\/span>. <\/span>The life and career of Clark is a profound example of the pursuit for justice and equity in Charleston, South Carolina<\/span>. <\/span>The struggles that people of color endure in the Charleston County School District have roots from slavery, through Jim Crow, and now in modern times. Clark\u2019s words can be used to describe the struggles that African Americans and people of color <\/span>endured,<\/span> and which persist today as an example of the modern legacy of institutionalized slavery:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In one hundred years since slavery the Negro has struggled to overcome the attempts to transform that once legal slavery into more subtle forms of educational, economic, and political slavery.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Septima P. Clark recognized that the continuous cycle of inequity, discrimination, and racism within the school system in the modern United States was, and still is, prevalent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","sponsor":null,"subtitle":null,"accessinfo":null,"lede":"At 105 Wentworth Street stands College of Charleston\u2019s Kappa Sigma Fraternity house. Beyond the surface of a residential home for the College\u2019s frat life, this property holds a special part of Charleston\u2019s Black history. On May 3rd, 1898, Septima Poinsette (she later became Clark when she married Nerie Clark in 1920) was born on this site.","website":null,"related_resources":["

\"Childhood Home: 17 Henrietta Street\", Lowcountry Digital History Initiative,<\/span>https:\/\/ldhi.library.cofc.edu\/exhibits\/show\/septima_clark\/virtual-tour\/17-henrietta-street<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>","

Herb Frazier, <\/span>We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel<\/span><\/i>. (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2016).<\/span><\/p>","

John W. Meffert, <\/span>Charleston, South Carolina<\/span><\/i>. (Charleston: Arcadia, 2000).<\/span><\/p>","

Kat Chow, \"Denmark Vesey and the History of Charleston's 'Mother Emanuel' Church.\"\u00a0 NPR<\/i>, June 18, 2015. \u00a0https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/codeswitch\/2015\/06\/18\/415465656\/denmark-vesey-and-the-history-of-charleston-s-mother-emanuel-church<\/a>.


<\/span><\/p>","\"Local and National Leader: Septima P. Clark\", Lowcountry Digital History Initiative,<\/span>http:\/\/ldhi.library.cofc.edu\/exhibits\/show\/septima_clark\/local-and-national-leader<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>","Lucy Perkins, Will Huntsberry, and Bill Chappell.\u00a0 \"The Victims: 9 Were Slain at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church.\"\u00a0 <\/span>NPR<\/span><\/i>, June 18, 2015. <\/span>\u00a0https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/06\/18\/415539516\/the-victims-9-were-slain-at-charlestons-emanuel-ame-church<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>","

\u201cOral History Interview with Peter Poinsette\u201d, Lowcountry Digital Library, Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston, 3\/31\/1981.<\/span><\/p>","

Septima Poinsette Clark, 1898-1987. \"Citizenship and the Gospel\" Lowcountry Digital Library, Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston.<\/span><\/i><\/p>","

\u201cSeptima Poinsette Clark Biographical Sketch\u201d, Lowcountry Digital Library, Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston.<\/span><\/i><\/p>"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/8b969f915526250a15a93dbb3d42cc2f.jpg":{"id":254,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"105 Wentworth Street","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/8b969f915526250a15a93dbb3d42cc2f.jpg","description":"This street-view photograph depicts 105 Wentworth as the present day as the Sigma Kappa sorority house. Courtesy of the College of Charleston."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/c47cb02e3dc716d2efad813c56a5110f.jpg":{"id":256,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Septima Clark Receives Honorary Degree, 1978","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/c47cb02e3dc716d2efad813c56a5110f.jpg","description":"Clark stands beside Governor James Edwards on March 11, 1978, at the College of Charleston, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters for forty years of work as an educator, civil rights leader and advocate for the underprivileged. Gov. Edwards, a 1950 College graduate, was named alumnus of the year. Avery Research Center, College of Charleston Libraries. Courtesy of College of Charleston Libraries, Special Collections."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/ebd892ee1e1faa83b8d78e261bf72ff7.jpg":{"id":257,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Septima Clark\u2019s Birthplace Marker","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/ebd892ee1e1faa83b8d78e261bf72ff7.jpg","description":"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\u2019s 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 \u201cthe mother of the movement\u201d and brought her with him to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. This marker was erected May 3, 2018 (Clark\u2019s 110th birthday) by students in the College of Charleston\u2019s Teaching Fellows program. Courtesy of the College of Charleston."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/77b62b9163caa908d7de0e36d3223b4b.jpg":{"id":404,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Septima Poinsette Clark","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/77b62b9163caa908d7de0e36d3223b4b.jpg","description":"Septima Poinsette Clark's headstone in the Brown Fellowship Society's Cemetery off of Cunnington Avenue. Photograph courtesy of Noah Dubois."}}}