Name two prominent women whose leadership significantly shaped the Civil Rights Movement, and describe their contributions.

• A. Rosa Parks — bus boycott; Coretta Scott King — led marches.
• B. Septima Clark — citizenship schools; Diane Nash — led sit-ins and SNCC campaigns.
• C. Ella Baker — citizenship schools; Fannie Lou Hamer — sit-ins.
• D. Mary McLeod Bethune — education; Sojourner Truth — abolition.

Answer: (B)

Septima Clark’s citizenship schools show how education and civic empowerment could expand the movement’s base. By teaching literacy and civics to Black adults and training teachers to run these schools, she created a nationwide flow of informed voters and community organizers who could challenge discriminatory laws and participate more fully in public life. Diane Nash’s leadership demonstrates the power of student-led, nonviolent direct action. She helped organize and sustain sit-ins and played a crucial role in the SNCC, steering campaigns across the South and in the Freedom Rides, proving that organized youth leadership could drive strategic, lasting change. Together, these two forms of leadership—educational empowerment and strategic, nonviolent activism—show how two different approaches were essential to shaping the Civil Rights Movement.