Media Kit and Press Resources
1. BRAND: Wilkie Clark’s Daughter
Flagship Publication: The Southern Justice Archive
Tagline: “Documenting what happened, Preserving what matters, Protecting what must endure!”
2. PRESS BIO:
(Short Version)
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson is the founder of The Southern Justice Archive and the public voice behind the brand Wilkie Clark’s Daughter. She is the co-owner of Clark Memorial Funeral Service in Roanoke, Alabama, a 57-year-old Black family business established by her parents, civil-rights pioneers Wilkie and Hattie Lee Clark. A funeral director, historian, educator, and advocate, Clark-Frieson documents systemic injustice in Alabama, exposes modern abuses of regulatory power, uplifts Southern civil-rights history, and continues her family’s legacy of economic resistance and truth-telling.
3. EXTENDED BIO
(for press releases, interviews, documentaries)
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson is a life-long civil-rights archivist, historian, writer, and community advocate whose work preserves some of the most important untold stories of East Alabama’s Black experience. For most of her adult life, she has served as the steward of Black economic history, funeral service tradition, and civil-rights preservation in East Alabama. Born into a family deeply rooted in the struggle for justice, she is the daughter of the late Wilkie Clark, a legendary civil-rights leader and the founding president of the Randolph County NAACP Branch #5053.
Charlotte’s educational journey reflects her lifelong commitment to service. She earned both a Bachelor of Science in Special Education (March, 1981) and a Master of Education in Specific Learning Disabilities (December, 1986) from Auburn University. During her time there, she helped make history as a Charter Member of the Kappa Upsilon Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., chartered on January 12, 1974—the first Black sorority ever established on Auburn’s historic campus.
She later pursued professional training in funeral service, earning her Technical Degree from the Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service in Decatur, Georgia (August, 1993). This training prepared her to continue the Clark family’s funeral-service legacy with skill, reverence, and professionalism. Clark-Frieson is co-owner and licensed funeral director of Clark Memorial Funeral Service, the 57-year-old Black-owned funeral home her father established after being repeatedly denied financing by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Today, she continues to honor and defend that legacy through historical documentation, community advocacy, and public transparency regarding the regulatory and political structures that still target Black funeral home owners across the Deep South.
Charlotte served as President of the Randolph County NAACP in the 1990s, earning the NAACP Outstanding Leadership Award (1994). Her unwavering stance during the 1994 school-board crisis—when she resisted public pressure and racial intimidation—resulted in her receiving the John F. Kennedy “Profiles in Courage” Award (1995). Her leadership became a defining moment in the county’s civil-rights history.
Clark-Frieson also leads The Wilkie Clark Memorial Foundation (Founded 2004), stewarding scholarship programs, historic preservation projects, community uplift initiatives, and a growing archive of civil-rights materials, photographs, and oral histories connected to her family’s legacy.
Through the Southern Justice Archive, Charlotte documents police-community interactions, public governance issues, systemic injustices, and the personal narratives of Black families across East Alabama. Her archive is one of the region’s most important emerging historical repositories. Every article, timeline, document set, and case file reflects her meticulous commitment to preserving the truth before it disappears.
She continues to serve as a senior advisor to her local branch of the NAACP, providing crucial historical insight, procedural clarity, and multi-generation continuity in all matters related to civil rights and community oversight.
ABOUT THE BRAND — WILKIE CLARK’S DAUGHTER
Wilkie Clark’s Daughter is the personal brand, public identity, and civic platform of Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson. The name itself is a declaration — a lineage, a legacy, and a political stance. It honors the life and labor of the late Wilkie Clark and reflects her lifelong mission:
to continue the work her father began, protect the institutions he built, and fight the injustices he fought.
Under this brand, Clark-Frieson produces research, commentary, advocacy, and public documentation designed to:
Expose systemic injustice
Preserve local civil-rights history
Protect the legacy of Black funeral homes
Support the cultural memory of Black Southern communities
Application of truth-telling as a civic duty
5. ABOUT THE FLAGSHIP PUBLICATION —
THE SOUTHERN JUSTICE ARCHIVE
The Southern Justice Archive
”Documenting what happened, Preserving what matters, Protecting what must endure!”The Archive is a hybrid platform combining:
Investigative analysis
Historical documentation
Federal complaint releases
Civil-rights storytelling
Rural Southern politics
Truth-based commentary
Foundation program updates
It is the institutional memory of the brand Wilkie Clark’s Daughter — a digital archive designed to outlive the news cycle and preserve the full context of the battles being fought in Alabama today.
6. MISSION STATEMENT
To document the truth, preserve the record, and protect the legacy of Black Southern struggle, resistance, and justice — past and present — with uncompromising accuracy, integrity, and courage.
7. AREAS OF COVERAGE & EXPERTISE
Journalists, researchers, and readers can rely on this platform for:
Civil Rights & Black Southern History
Local civil-rights leadership in Alabama
The Wilkie Clark story (economic discrimination, NAACP leadership, entrepreneurship)
Regional racial politics and suppression tactics
Systemic Injustice & Regulatory Abuse
Discrimination against Black funeral homes
Weaponization of state boards and agencies
Rural economic oppression
Funeral Service Industry
Regulation, oversight, and systemic bias
Black death care traditions
Community-based funeral home survival
Legal Analysis & Accountability
Federal complaints
Civil rights protections
Administrative overreach
Civic Engagement & Voting Power
Voter suppression patterns
Community empowerment
Election stakes in the rural South
Family Legacy & Historical Preservation
The Clark Historic Landmark Site
Foundational narratives of Black entrepreneurship
Oral histories and archival materials
8. PRESS CONTACT
For interviews, speaking engagements, historical documentation requests, or press inquiries, contact:
Wilkie Clark’s Daughter Media Relations
📧 charlotte@clarkmemorialfoundation.org
📍 Roanoke, Alabama
🔗 Website: https://www.southernjusticearchive.com9. QUOTABLE LINES
(ready for journalists to pull)You may use these in your articles, graphics, and press materials:
“Truth doesn’t disappear just because someone wants it buried.”
“I inherited a legacy they couldn’t break — and a fight I refuse to lose quietly.”
“This is Southern justice as it actually exists, not as the brochures describe it.”
“Some stories are preserved in archives. Ours had to be fought for.”
“I document what happened because silence is how injustice survives.”
“My father didn’t bend. I’m not bending either.”
“The South keeps receipts — and this Archive is one of them.”
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson aka “Wilkie Clark’s Daughter” Preferred citation format:
The Southern Justice Archive
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson aka “Wilkie Clark’s Daughter,” Publisher. Year. Title of Article. URL. (Publisher: Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson aka “Wilkie Clark’s Daughter).