- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Septima Poinsette Clark, July 30, 1976
- Creator:
- Clark, Septima Poinsette, 1898-1987
- Contributor to Resource:
- Walker, Eugene P. (Eugene Pierce), 1936-
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 1976-07-30
- Subject:
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Trade-unions--Officials and employees--Southern States--Education
Highlander Folk School (Monteagle, Tenn.)
Women civil rights workers
African American civil rights workers--Georgia
Voter registration--Southern States
Civil rights movements--Southern States
Adult education--Southern States
Working class--Education--Southern States - People:
- King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
Clark, Septima Poinsette, 1898-1987 - Location:
- United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Tennessee, Franklin County, 35.15496, -86.09218
United States, Tennessee, Grundy County, 35.38837, -85.72258
United States, Tennessee, Marion County, Monteagle, 35.24008, -85.8397 - Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- Septima Clark was hired by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to continue the voter registration and community education classes she had taught through the Highlander Folk School. She recalls some of the successes of her work with the SCLC, especially the passing of the Voting Rights Act. The challenges of the work included prejudice against the female leaders in the organization, violent reactions by local police and Ku Klux Klan, and occasional class prejudice amongst SCLC leaders. Clark notes how several leaders needed to learn techniques for serving poor rural people, and she often corrected their misunderstandings. She compares the leadership strategies of Andrew Young, Wyatt T. Walker, and Ralph Abernathy and explains why the organization flourished under the influence of certain civil rights workers like Young and Jesse Jackson.
The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata. - Metadata URL:
- http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0017/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Title from menu page (viewed on May 22, 2007).
Interview participants: Septima Poinsette Clark, interviewee, Eugene Walker, interviewer
Duration: 01:26:08
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.
Text encoded by Mike Millner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers. - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)
- Rights: