Colia L. Liddell Lafayette Clark (July 21, 1940 – November 4, 2022) was an American activist and politician.[1] Clark was theGreen Party's candidate for theUnited States Senate in New York in2010 and2012.[2][3]
Clark was a veteran of thecivil rights,black power, andpan-African movements. She was a field secretary for theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and played a key role establishing equalvoting rights in Selma, Alabama. She was also an organizer with theBirmingham campaign, as well as throughout Mississippi. Her work included activism in the fields ofwomen's rights andworkers' rights, as well as activism and advocacy for homeless people and youth. She worked with theCynthia 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 ofMumia Abu-Jamal.
Clark was a student atTougaloo College, anhistorically black college inTougaloo, Mississippi, when she became involved with thecivil rights movement. An activist with theNAACP, she was involved with voter registration efforts.[4] Under the guidance of Medgar Evers and John Salter, Clark founded theNAACP Youth Council inNorth Jackson, Mississippi.[5]
While working with the NAACP, she became special assistant toMedgar Evers,field secretary for theNAACP. In 1962 Clark resigned from the NAACP and joined theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to do voter registration work alongside her then husband,Bernard Lafayette, in Alabama. This project laid essential groundwork for theSelma 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 theBirmingham campaign of 1963.
In 1964, she helped found the Southern Organizing Committee at Fisk University.[6] She was an organizer in theBlack Power movement, including theRepublic of New Afrika.[7] By early 1973, she returned to Mississippi and worked on a number of other projects including the editorship of theJackson Advocate.[6]
Clark was critical of the way in which the civil rights movement was portrayed in popular media, particularly in the filmSelma, arguing it belittles student activism and does nothing to address the legacy of inequality. She was a vocal supporter of theBlack Lives Matter movement, seeing it (along with the Black Power movement) as a successor to the civil rights movement.[8]
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 theGreen Party presidential candidate. In her final years Clark focused on writing, activism and advocacy about Haiti.
Clark attendedTougaloo College and earned a M.A. fromAlbany State University inAlbany, GA, where she later worked as a professor. She was also a professor at SUNY Albany, Albany, NY[9]
Clark died on November 4, 2022, at the age of 82.[10][11]
