Event / Author Event

Author Event: Freedom's Teacher

In the mid-1950s Septima Poinsette Clark developed a literacy and citizenship training program that enabled thousands of African-Americans to register to vote and link power to concrete strategies for individual and communal empowerment.

Septima Poinsette Clark’s gift to the Civil Rights Movement was education. In the mid-1950s, this former public school teacher developed a citizenship training program that enabled thousands of African Americans to register to vote and then to link the power of the ballot to concrete strategies for individual and communal empowerment. The vibrantly written biography, Freedom’s Teacher places Clark (1898-1987) in a long tradition of southern African American activist educators, women who spent their lives teaching citizenship by helping people to help themselves.

Join the Institute for Policy Studies, Teaching for Change, National Council for the Social Studies, Center for Inspired Teaching and Busboys & Poets for a discussion and book signing with author, Katherine Charron. Freedom’s Teacher traces Clark’s life from her earliest years as a student, teacher, and community member in rural and urban South Carolina to her increasing radicalization as an activist following World War II, highlighting how Clark brought her life’s work to bear on the civil rights movement.

Katherine Charron is an Associate Professor of history at North Carolina State University and is coeditor of William Henry Singleton's Recollections of My Slavery Days.

The first 15 classroom teachers to arrive will receive a free copy of the featured book, thanks to the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.