Annie E. Clark
| Annie E. Clark | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Annie Elizabeth Clark July 15, 1989 Raleigh, North Carolina |
| Education | B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Annie Elizabeth Clark (born July 15, 1989) is a women's rights and civil rights activist in the United States. She was one of the lead complainants of the 2013 Title IX and Clery Act charges lodged against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, claiming that the institution violated the law by the way they handled sexual assault complaints. Clark and Andrea Pino, then a fellow UNC student and also a victim of sexual assault, launched a nationwide campaign to use Title IX complaints to force U.S. universities to address sexual assault and related problems more aggressively. Clark is executive director and co-founder with Pino of End Rape on Campus, an advocacy group for victims of campus sexual assault.
Clark was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the granddaughter of former congressman, Charles Orville Whitley, and attended Jesse O. Sanderson High School. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science. During college at UNC-Chapel Hill, Clark was inducted into Pi Sigma Alpha, the Order of the Golden Fleece Honorary Society, and the Order of the Grail-Valkyries for her service and student leadership. She was also inducted into The Phi Beta Kappa Society for her academic work. In 2011, she presented her paper, "Interpersonal Violence Policy and Prevention in US Higher Education," at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
Clark's activism stems in part from a personal experience during her freshman year at UNC. In 2007, Clark was approached by a friend who confided a sexual assault; Clark had also been recently assaulted and the two women agreed to report their rapes to the school administration. According to Clark, when she sought support for the incident, a UNC school staff member "advised her that rape was like a football game, and that the next day was like being a Monday-morning quarterback where you look back and think, What would I have done differently?" as if the student were at fault. In response to the lack of support, and related to learning of other students who had suffered sexual assault, Clark began research into abuse at other campuses. She eventually explored filing a challenge to the university under Title IX, a 1972 Civil Rights Act amendment that grants certain rights of opportunity to those pursuing higher education.
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