Freedom's Teacher - by Katherine Mellen Charron (Paperback)

About the Book

Freedom's Teacher: The Life of Septima Clark

Book Synopsis

In the mid-1950s, Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987), a 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. In this vibrantly written biography, Katherine Charron demonstrates Clark's crucial role -- and the role of many black women teachers -- in making education a cornerstone of the twentieth-century freedom struggle. Using Clark's life as a lens, Charron sheds valuable new light on southern black women's activism in national, state, and judicial politics, from the Progressive Era to the civil rights movement and beyond.

Review Quotes

"Freedom's Teacher is the product of a 12-year research journey, the result of which is extensive and meticulously organized. . . . Charron vividly brings [Clark's] life and times to the fore."--Charleston Post and Courier

"A beautifully written and meticulously researched biography. . . . An essential addition to the growing number of biographies of black women educators and activists....It challenges us to broaden our understanding of the development of the civil rights era, the definition of civil rights leadership, and the role of education in laying the foundation for protest and social justice in the twentieth century."--American Historical Review

"A carefully researched and beautifully written study that absorbs the reader from the first paragraph. . . . An engaging synthesis of the major events and personalities of twentieth-century South Carolina. . . . An essential text for students of educational history, women's history, and the civil rights movement."--North Carolina Historical Review

"A deft narrative. . . . A compelling story about someone whose name may not be included as a leader in the civil rights movement but certainly should be."--Journal of Southern History

"As a lyrical and moving account of an influential activist, this biography is unrivaled."--Journal of American Studies

"Deeply researched and engaging. . . . Charron's richly suggestive biography of Septima Clark will surely stimulate more work on the African American women who made the possibilities of the movement realities."--Journal of American History

"In Charron's capable hands, [Septima] Clark's life has at long last received the full-length attention it deserves."--Oral History Review

"Stunning, eminently readable . . . Pulls the reader in from the outset with opening lines that approach synesthesia. . . . Any biographers would find this work amazing and a worthy addition to their libraries. Any historian of the civil rights movements would be well suited to pick this up as background and context for understanding a leader and pioneer. A general reader would not be put off by academic prose or over-reliance on either citations or notations."--H-Net Reviews

"The crucial role played by Septima Poinsette Clark and other African-American women has been written back into the story of the civil rights movement."--The Pilot

"This biography will enlighten anyone interested in the black freedom struggle, the classic phase of the civil rights movement, and women's history."--Tennessee Historical Review