The American Innovation $1 Coin representing South Carolina honors educator and civil rights activist Septima Poinsette Clark.
Born in 1898 in Charleston, South Carolina, Septima Clark pioneered the link between education and political organizing during the civil rights movement. Civil rights youth workers and community organizers referred to her as “Mother Conscience” and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to her as “The Mother of the Movement.”
Clark believed that “knowledge could empower marginalized groups in ways that formal legal equality couldn’t.” She helped establish the first Citizenship Schools, teaching literacy and citizenship rights, and helped establish local leaders for the civil rights movement. Teaching people to read and understand the Constitution helped black citizens pass the literacy tests used to disenfranchise black voters.
- Special reverse proof strike minted in low quantities
- Minted at the U.S. Mint at San Francisco
