Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement

In 1979, Brown spent a week interviewing Clark, who was then 81 and had spent a good part of her life struggling for civil rights in South Carolina. Brown subsequently edited and rearranged Clark's story, which is variously told in standard English, an African-inspired version spoken on St. John's Island, S.C., and Charlestonese. The result is a rich taleClark was a teacher for years, until she was fired in 1956 because of her membership in the NAACP. Soon she became involved in the Citizenship Schools, which trained black adults to read and write in order to be eligible to vote. Later she worked with Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and others in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Today near 90, Clark carries on her struggle, working with black women, who as a group, she maintains, have to face greater obstacles than most other people. This is a poignant story, told with hope and humanity. (November)