FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 18, 2009

CONTACT:
Contact Person:  Valerie Jackson Jones
Company Name:  Community Association for the Welfare of School Children
Voice Phone Number: 225-924-7506
FAX Number:  225-924-5165
Email Address: info@cawsc.org
Website URL: www.cawsc.org

MRS. MILDRED MOORE CLARK HUMANITARIAN AWARD RECIPIENT

Baton Rouge, LA - Mrs. Mildred Moore Clark, 100 years old, has been nominated by the Community Association for the Welfare of School Children (CAWSC) and will be awarded the Humanitarian Award from the Baton Rouge Council on Human Relations on Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. at the Wesley Foundation in Baton Rouge, LA.

Mildred Moore Clark was born in Minden, Louisiana. on January 16, 1909. She is the maternal granddaughter of the owner of the brick factory, whose bricks were used to build the first building at Bishop College in Marshall, Texas. (Bishop College was a historically black college founded in the 1800’s) Mrs. Clark earned her B.S. in Social Work from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Clark was the only black student at Mawr College during her time there. She was sent by the Urban League to help foster integration. She also earned a B.A. in Sociology and History from Oberlin College in Ohio. She attained her Masters degree in Child Development Psychology from Columbia University in N.Y.

Clark was the first black woman to work as a supervisor for the East Baton Rouge Parish School System Child Welfare and Attendance Division. She was a founder of the Community Association for the Welfare of School Children, a non profit agency, 50 years ago – sometimes supporting the organization with her personal funds. She served as chairman of CAWSC, and she was the first executive director, which was at the time, an unpaid position.

During the early 1950s, segregation was a problem in the south, not excluding Baton Rouge. To keep school-aged children in school, they needed clothes. However, because of failed welfare reform, some black people had to obtain clothes through donations. When some nonprofit organizations discriminated against black people, Clark wrote a letter of concern to citizens encouraging them to meet to solve the clothing dilemma. The nine women that met on January 7, 1959, formed the Advisory Committee for the Welfare of School Children, and the organization was later renamed as the Community Association for the Welfare of School Children (CAWSC).

Clark is a member of Baptist Woman’s Auxiliary 4th District and Deaconess Board of the Mount Zion Baptist Church. She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and has served as a block leader for the Southern Heights Subdivision in Baton Rouge. She has received the J.C. Penny Golden Rule Award for volunteers. She also took part in the Signpost to Freedom, The 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott documentary.

In an interview in 1999, Clark mentioned that one of CAWSC’s fundamental principles was to meet needs of the community. She stated that the organization “has to continue to meet existing needs…you have to change to do this, and this is what we are doing.” She hopes that the community will continue to support the agency’s efforts.

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