Septima Poinsette began work as a teacher in a rural area of South Carolina after graduating from high school.  Being black, she was not allowed to work in Charleston's public schools and had to put up with less pay and more testing conditions.

In her early twenties Septima became involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - the NCAAP.  She was also married to Nerie Clark and began studying at a number of universities, eventually securing a number of degrees.

Clark concentrated on fighting for the rights of blacks for the rest of her life.  She helped enable equal hiring practices in the school systems and ran workshops to teach basic literacy skills to the disenfranchised in the South. Her Citizenship Schools became so effective and popular that Martin Luther King, Jr. made the program part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Clark became the group's director of education and was awarded their highest award.