She Who Learns, Teaches: Septima Clark and Black Women Activist Educators, Past, Present, and Future
Document Type
Presentation
Presentation Date
4-11-2011
Abstract or Description
In the mid-1950s, civil rights educator Septima Clark (1898-1987) developed a citizenship education curriculum that prepared African Americans to pass the literacy tests required by southern states to register to vote. Her larger goal, however, was to equip adult students to wield the power of the ballot more effectively to improve their daily lives. This paper examines the historical foundations of the Citizenship Schools by tracing the evolutions within Clark’s pedagogical philosophy and methodology. Expanding the scope to the 1964 Freedom Schools in Mississippi, it also considers how education-based activism fostered women’s involvement in the movement and in their communities. Finally, it looks forward to present iterations of citizenship/freedom school curriculum in several after-school programs in the resegregated southern landscape.
Sponsorship/Conference/Institution
American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting (AERA)
Location
New Orleans, LA
Recommended Citation
Lake, Robert L., Katherine Mellen Charron, Kristal T. Moore.
2011.
"She Who Learns, Teaches: Septima Clark and Black Women Activist Educators, Past, Present, and Future."
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, & Reading Faculty Presentations.
Presentation 94.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/curriculum-facpres/94
