E’ry day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development, in partnership with Phillys7thWard.org, will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer.
But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month...February is just the Blackest.
Today, our featured Black Educator is Septima P. Clark.
Septima Clark was an eduactivist, born in South Carolina on May 3, 1898. A student of W.E.B. Du Bois, she became an educator and taught throughout South Carolina for over 30 years. However, she was fired from teaching because she refused to resign from the NAACP. A state law passed in 1956 prohibited city and state employees from belonging to civil rights organizations – Septima knew you could’nt separate racial justice from educational justice. She also know that despite the school board separating her from her beloved teaching position, the teaching and learning she was committed to doing would continue.
She pivoted and turned her work of teaching for liberation to a broader effort – adults.
Septima spent summers teaching literacy and civil and Constitutional rights at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. The Highlander School was COUNTINUE READING: Septima Clark, Black Educator Hall of Fame - Philly's 7th Ward