Teaching for Change: How Septima Clark Led the Civil Rights Movement to Voting Justice

In this illuminating picture book biography about a figure who “could always find a way,” Clark-Rhines and Clark-Robinson frame the life of civil rights activist and teacher Septima Clark (1898–1987) as one driven by the subject’s passion for education and belief in equality. Clark was raised in Charleston by her formerly enslaved father and freeborn Haitian mother, who believed that education was the key to granting their daughter more in life. When school proved “not much” (“Black students had to sit... on the bleachers, doing nothing”) her mother took on housework for a former teacher in exchange for tutoring. At 18, Clark became a teacher herself, using Sears catalogs to teach reading when books for her students proved scarce. In the 1950s, after literacy tests were imposed to disenfranchise Black people, Clark used her experience to establish “citizenship schools” that taught “folks to own their rights.” And following a request from Martin Luther King Jr., “she taught thousands of teachers, and together, they taught hundreds of thousands of adult students.” Emotionally driven text introduces the figure’s favorite childhood hymn, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ’Round,” referencing its message of perseverance at significant moments, while Albano-Payton’s thickly stroked oil illustrations supply expressive portraits on every spread. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Authors’ notes and a timeline conclude. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)