T. Morgan Dixon: I would like to tell you
about the most powerful woman you've never heard of.
This is Septima Clark.
Remember her name --
Septima Clark.
Dr. King called her the "the architect" of the civil rights movement.
She created something called citizenship schools,
and in those schools,
she taught ordinary women the practical skills
to go back into their communities and teach people to read,
because if they could read,
they could vote.
All these women took those organizing skills,
and they became some of the most legendary civil rights activisits
this country has ever seen.
Women like Diane Nash.
You may know her.
She orchestrated the entire walk from Selma to Montgomery.
She was the co-founder of the student non-violent coordinating committee,
and they integrated lunch counters
and they created the freedom rides.
Or you may remember Fanny Lou Hamer,
who say on the floor of the Democratic National Convention,
and talked about being beaten in jail cells
as she registered people to vote in Mississippi.
And her most famous student:
Rosa Parks.
She said Septima Clark was the one
who taught her the peaceful act of resistance.
And when she sat down,
she inspired a nation to stand.
These were just three of her 10,000 students.
These women stood on the frontlines of change,
and by doing so,
they taught people to read in her citizenship school model
and empowered 700,000 new voters.
And that's not it.
She created a new culture of social activism.
Pete Seeger said it was Septima Clark who changed the lyrics
to the old gospel song,
and made the anthem we all know:
"We Shall Overcome."
Vanessa Garrison: Now