When an 18-year-old Septima P. Clark graduated from Avery Normal Institute in 1916, she landed a teaching job on Johns Island that was so isolated that it was only accessible by boat at high tide.
During recreation breaks during school days, Clark and another teacher at the Promised Land School loaded their pupils into ox-drawn carts for a short trip along Bohicket Road to the historic Angel Oak.
The tree was a quiet oasis in a racially segregated Charleston County, Clark recalled in a 1980 recorded interview with Ruth Miller and Linda Felkel, authors of The Angel Oak Story…