The educator was fired from her teaching job for refusing to leave the NAACP
Alpha Kappa Alpha members Lucille Poinsette, Ruby Cornwell, and E. B. Burroughs pose with educator and activist Septima P. Clark (second from right) at a sorority banquet held in her honor on December 23, 1956. When the South Carolina Legislature passed a law banning city or state employees from being involved with civil rights organizations earlier that year, Clark’s refusal to leave the NAACP resulted in her being fired from her teaching job with Charleston public schools after 40 years of employment. Only Poinsette, Cornwell, and Burroughs were willing to be photographed with Clark during the event; the others likely feared losing their jobs.
