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From dehumanized slaves to second class citizens and to fighters for civil rights, Septima Poinsette Clark passionately tells this riveting story of her family’s lineage in America in Blazing Toward Freedom: Septima Poinsette Clark’s Story from Slave to Queen Mother of the Movement.

In this creative nonfiction narrative, an aged Clark speaks from her Johns Island nursing home and takes the reader on a journey from the 1800s to the 1970s. She uses chronological historical events as the backdrop to her story in two parts.

In Part One, Clark moves the reader from the deadly and diseased slave ship to a Carolina rice plantation to experience both Gullah and elitist southern lifestyle traditions. Next, she drives the reader into the bloody American Civil War and through emancipation.

In Part Two, Clark shares her life story teaching citizenship and literacy skills. She bravely confronts Jim Crowism, segregation and institutionalized barriers against equality and voting rights. Clark’s phenomenal work crosses over with the work of some of America’s most renowned civil rights icons including Fannie Lou Hamer and others.

Blazing Toward Freedom, framed by significant historical events, is an important diversely inclusive American story.