A DAUGHTER'S BIOGRAPHICAL TRIBUTE TO A STRONG AFRICAN-AMERICAN FATHER The poignant, powerful life story of Wilkie Clark is lovingly penned by his only child, daughter/author Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson. It celebrates a man who enlarged himself to untold dimensions, as he struggled to serve humanity and liberate an entire community of oppressed people. He stood tall under the unbelievable weight of Jim Crow. This book takes a broad but serious look at the economics of racism as it was practiced in the south. As no one else could, the author translates her love, reverence and respect for her father into a moving statement of his life, works, trials, tribulations, victories & triumphs. It's a "must-read" for anyone facing the question of how to turn your dream into reality, despite life's unending adversities. "Telling daddy's story literally became the "healing balm" that's helped me come to terms with the continuing battle for spiritual, social, and human affirmation that have persisted throughout my life despite the apparent racial progress that has been observed during my own lifetime."
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson is an extraordinary -- powerful, multi-talented and enterprising personality who hails from rural east Alabama, and whose passions are as diverse as the east is from the west... As a long-time business owner-operator, radio personality, former educator in the public and private sector, civil rights leader/activist and past elected board-member of her school district, she has utilized all of her gifts and talents to serve as a vocal advocate for African American progress and empowerment in her own and surrounding neighborhoods and continues to exercise that vigor about the things that matter most, by letting her voice be heard. She was born in Roanoke, Alabama the ONLY child of two of the greatest people on earth -- the late Wilkie and Hattie Lee Peters Clark. At the core of who she is, lies many painful events she experienced growing up during the desegregation era of the late 1960s and 1970s coupled with the influence of her audacious parents, who were fully engaged in helping shape that era. She grew up in her native "East Roanoke" community, where she attended the predominantly black Randolph County Training School, and later on, the City of Roanoke's Handley High School, graduating with the class of 1971. She earned both a Bachelors and Master Of Education Degrees in Special Education from Auburn University. At Auburn, she pledged Delta Sigma Theta National Service Sorority, as one of the first 9 Deltas to be initiated there, thus she had a hand in establishing the first black women's sorority on Auburn's campus, (Kappa Upsilon Chapter), in 1974. Charlotte taught public and private school for several years in the neighboring state of Georgia. On the local level, she translated her background in education into 18 consecutive years of service as an elected member of Randolph County's Board of Education. In 2005, she published her first book -- her father's biography -- entitled "Chief Cook and Bottle-Washer", The Unconquerable Soul of Wilkie Clark. She considered this book, her biographical tribute to a strong African American father. There were two factors driving her objective in publishing this work: one was a promise made to her mother before her death; the other, her own deep respect for the far-reaching impact her father had on the African-American people in their local community. Understanding that history would not regard him accordingly, she decided to write her own documentary of his contributions.
