Septima Clark founded the Highlander Folk School’s Citizenship School program in South Carolina.
Septima Clark was an educator and civil rights organizer who developed methods for teaching adults literacy, civic knowledge, and voter-registration skills. In the early 1960s, she helped create the Citizenship School on Johns Island, South Carolina, with Bernice Robinson serving as an important early teacher.
The program trained local people to read, complete voter-registration forms, and understand political rights. Its approach emphasized community leadership rather than dependence on outside organizers. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference later expanded the Citizenship School network under Dorothy Cotton.
Clark is sometimes called the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” although that phrase is also used broadly for other women activists. Her work shows how education and grassroots training supported the movement’s voting campaigns.