Three Black Women of Literacy: Harriet Jacobs, Susie King & Septima Clark

The other night, I stumbled on a staggering statistic for Americans. According to the National Literacy Institute, 21% of Americas are illiterate.

Let that sink in. Twenty-one percent - a figure approaching one quarter of Americans - can not read. 

Oh, but it gets worse.

* 54% of adults read below a 6th grade level. 

* 20% of adults read below a 5th grade level  

* 34% of adults who lack literacy proficiency were born outside the US

Let me put that into perspective for you.

According to most readability assessments, The New York Times is considered to be at a roughly college level reading level, often estimated around a 12th-grade reading level. The reading level The Washington Post can vary, but it is estimated to be around a 10-12th grade reading level. The Los Angeles Times generally falls around a 10th grade reading level. The Boston Globe is generally considered to be written at a college reading level.

According to readability analysis, Fox News generally falls around a 7th-8th grade reading level. The National Enquirer is generally considered to be around 6th grade. Most "local newspapers," depending on their location, aim for a reading level around an 8th to 11th grade level with many considering the average to be around an 8th grade level.

Let the reader understand.

There's good news and bad news: The good news is that The NY Times has a much higher circulation rate than The National Enquirer. The bad news is that The Fox News Channel is the most-watched television news station for the past 23 consecutive years.

Here are some other concerning statistics from the Barbara Bush Foundation:

20% of high school seniors can be classified as functionally illiterate at graduation

70% of prisoners in state and federal systems are illiterate
85% of all juvenile offenders rate as functionally or marginally illiterate
43% of those with the lowest literacy skill live in poverty.

Let me also add this: According to recent data compiled by Pew Research, approximately 56% of people incarcerated in the US are people of color, with Black Americans being disproportionately represented in the prison population, making up around 32% of the incarcerated population despite representing a smaller percentage of the overall US population.

If you hear alarm bells going off as you consider of present administrations' fervent, passionate goal to dismantle the US Department of Education, you may, in fact, be "woke".

Harriet A. Jacobs

You may also understand why literacy has been a passionate goal of the Black Community. I want to lift up and celebrate and call the names of three women who have been heroes of this movement. These women fought against incredible odds to teach themselves how to read and write and then, became fiercely committed to making sure others were literate. They understood that literacy was one of the keys to liberation. Their clue was that their slave owners were fiercely committed to keeping them illiterate.

This is taken from the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation:

In 2020, three Black women of literacy

Harriet A. Jacobs (1813-1897)
Susie King Taylor (1848-1912)
Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987)

were inducted posthumously into the Reading Hall of Fame. All three contributed to the quest of literacy for African Americans, specifically in the area of adult literacy.

‣ Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in 1813. In her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, she details life in slavery and her daring escape. Having been taught to read by her owner’s daughter, one story she shares is of helping another older slave learn to read. Once she obtained her freedom, she taught former slaves to read and write at Freedmen’s Schools. Her work also involved family literacy—in many cases, children and their parents would learn together.

Susie King Taylor

‣ Susie King Taylor was born a slave in Georgia in 1848. She was taught to read and write by a freed woman, going to school each day “with our books wrapped in paper to prevent the police or white persons from seeing them.” (King, 1902, p.5). She was the first African American teacher in Georgia and taught children and adults at a Freedmen’s school. A published author, she related her stories of the Civil War and teaching adults in her book, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops Late 1st S.C. Volunteers: “I had about forty children to teach, beside a number of adults who came to me nights, all of them so eager to learn to read, to read above anything else.” (King,1902, p.11).

‣ Lastly, born in 1898 in South Carolina, Septima Poinsette Clark was a teacher and Civil Rights activist. Known as an innovative teacher, she used “real world” materials in her
teaching and tied her teaching to voting rights. She helped start Citizenship Schools for Black adults and led the Voter Registration Project from 1962-1966. She retired in 1970, after having an enormous impact on voter registration in the south—over a million African Americans had registered to vote. In 1979, she received the Living Legacy Awardfrom President Jimmy Carter. Her published works include Echo in My Soul and Ready From Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement.

 

Septima Poinsette Clark

Years ago, at a General Convention in some city, a long, long ago, it was my privilege to serve on the Urban and Social Justice Committee (I think it was, then, Committee 25). One of the hearings of that committee was on the Industrial Prison Complex.

I remember with a kind of intense clarity the testimony of a woman, an Episcopal Priest, who had served as a Prison Chaplain, on Death Row as part of the Texas Prison System, which has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of executions in America. (Note: Alabama has a high death sentencing rate due to judges overriding jury verdicts of life to impose capital punishment. Since 1976, Alabama judges have overridden jury verdicts 112 times.)

She said that, as she heard the confessions of the inmates before their executions, they expressed three consistent "wishes":

"I wish I had been able to read."
"I wish I had never started drugs."
"I wish I had a family."

She added, solemnly, clearly, and passionately, "I don't think I've ever heard a clearer vocational call to the churches. We can start literacy programs. We can start drug addiction prevention programs. We can be a safe haven, a sanctuary, a family, for God's children."

I felt convicted by her testimony. Still do. In two congregations I've been privileged to serve, I have made sure we had Literacy Programs. In several churches, I gave my full support to the ESL Programs already in existence. No, it wasn't enough, but it was something.

Wherever you are, please do whatever you can to further the cause of literacy. Education - even in its most basic elements of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic -  is the key to liberation. The relationships formed between teachers and students are transformative.

Please follow the path illuminated by the three bright lights of these Stars of the Epiphany: Harriet Jacobs, Susie King and Septima Clark.

Don't know what to do about the oppression of the current, cruel fascist regime? Pleading for mercy was a good, indeed noble, start. Unfortunately, it fell on intentionally deaf ears.

I've got three suggestions as the next steps in the Christian Pilgrimage to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly: Literacy Programs, Addiction Prevention Programs and Supporting At-Risk Families.

I hope something good happens to you today.

Bom dia.