From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American political activist (1940?2022)
Colia L. Liddell Lafayette Clark
(July 21, 1940 ? November 4, 2022) was an American activist and politician.
[1]
Clark was the
Green Party's
candidate for the
United States Senate
in New York in
2010
and
2012
.
[2]
[3]
Clark was a veteran of the
civil rights
,
black power
, and
pan-African
movements. She was a field secretary for the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
and played a key role establishing equal
voting rights in Selma
, Alabama. She was also an organizer with the
Birmingham campaign
, as well as throughout Mississippi. Her work included activism in the fields of
women's rights
and
workers' rights
, as well as activism and advocacy for homeless people and youth. She worked with the
Cynthia McKinney
for president campaign, with "Power to the People". Clark was a member of the Reconstruction Party (USA), and was a chair of Grandmothers for the Release of
Mumia Abu-Jamal
.
Civil rights
[
edit
]
Clark was a student at
Tougaloo College
, an
historically black college
in
Tougaloo, Mississippi
, when she became involved with the
civil rights movement
. An activist with the
NAACP
, she was involved with voter registration efforts.
[4]
Under the guidance of Medgar Evers and John Salter, Clark founded the
NAACP Youth Council
in
North Jackson, Mississippi
.
[5]
While working with the NAACP, she became special assistant to
Medgar Evers
,
field secretary
for the
NAACP
. In 1962 Clark resigned from the NAACP and joined the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) to do voter registration work alongside her then husband,
Bernard Lafayette
, in Alabama. This project laid essential groundwork for the
Selma voting rights campaign
of 1965. She was eventually named executive secretary of SNCC.
[5]
She also participated in street demonstrations and experienced police brutality in the
Birmingham campaign
of 1963.
In 1964, she helped found the Southern Organizing Committee at Fisk University.
[6]
She was an organizer in the
Black Power
movement, including the
Republic of New Afrika
.
[7]
By early 1973, she returned to Mississippi and worked on a number of other projects including the editorship of the
Jackson Advocate
.
[6]
Clark was critical of the way in which the civil rights movement was portrayed in popular media, particularly in the film
Selma
, arguing it belittles student activism and does nothing to address the legacy of inequality. She was a vocal supporter of the
Black Lives Matter
movement, seeing it (along with the Black Power movement) as a successor to the civil rights movement.
[8]
Green Party
[
edit
]
Clark was co-chair of the New York delegation to the Green Party of the United States presidential nominating convention, where Cynthia McKinney was nominated as the
Green Party
presidential candidate. In her final years Clark focused on writing, activism and advocacy about Haiti.
Education
[
edit
]
Clark attended
Tougaloo College
and earned a M.A. from
Albany State University
in
Albany, GA
, where she later worked as a professor. She was also a professor at SUNY Albany, Albany, NY
[5]
Personal life and death
[
edit
]
Clark died on November 4, 2022, at the age of 82.
[9]
[10]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Lesser-known candidates in U.S. Senate race"
.
Newsday
. October 27, 2012
. Retrieved
29 December
2012
.
- ^
Campbell, Colin (April 18, 2012).
"Green Party Candidates File for Many New York Congressional Races"
. Retrieved
April 30,
2012
.
- ^
"Green Party Biography of Colia Clark"
. Archived from
the original
on April 2, 2015
. Retrieved
April 30,
2012
.
- ^
"Clark, Colia Liddell"
.
Civil Rights Digital Library
. Retrieved
29 December
2012
.
- ^
a
b
c
Rosche, Jedd (February 7, 2006).
"Civil rights leader to talk today"
.
The Maneater
. Retrieved
29 December
2012
.
- ^
a
b
"Colia Liddell Lafayette Clark" Civil Rights Movement Archive website
- ^
Dan Berger "The Malcolm X Doctrine: The Republic of New Afrika and National Liberation on U.S. Soil" in
New World Coming: The Sixties and the Shaping of Global Consciousness
- ^
Anthony Palmer "Interview with Colia LaFayette Clark: We Have to Finish the March of the Civil Rights Movement!" Socialist Organizer, March 3, 2015
Archived
April 2, 2015, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"A Civil Rights Warrior of the 1960s: The Legacy of Colia Lafayette Clark"
.
KPFA
. 10 November 2022
. Retrieved
27 November
2022
.
- ^
"Colia Clark Presente!"
.
Black Agenda Report
. 16 November 2022
. Retrieved
27 November
2022
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Events
(
timeline
)
| Prior to 1954
| |
---|
1954?1959
| |
---|
1960?1963
| |
---|
1964?1968
| |
---|
|
---|
Activist
groups
| |
---|
Activists
| |
---|
By region
| |
---|
Movement
songs
| |
---|
Influences
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|
Legacy
| |
---|
Noted
historians
| |
---|
|