The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist

Myles Horton ] Myles Falls Horton (July 9, 1905– January 19, 1990) was an American educator, socialist, and co-founder of the Highlander Folk School, famous for its role in the Civil Rights Movement (Movement leader James Bevel called Horton "The Father o ...

, educator Don West (educator), Don West, and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

minister James A. Dombrowski, it was originally located in the community of Summerfield in

Grundy County, Tennessee Grundy County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in Middle Tennessee, bordering East Tennessee. As of 2021, the population was 13,622. Its county seat is Altamont. The county is named in honor of Felix Grundy. ...

, between Monteagle and Tracy City. It was featured in the 1985 documentary film, '' You Got to Move''. Much of the history was documented in the book ''Or We'll All Hang Separately: The Highlander Idea'' by Thomas Bledsoe. Highlander provides training and education for emerging and existing movement leaders throughout the South, Appalachia, and the world. Some of Highlander's earliest contributions were during the

labor movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, C ...

and throughout the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. During the 1950s, it played a critical role in the

American Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the United ...

. It trained civil rights leader

Rosa Parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "th ...

prior to her historic role in the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...

, as well as providing training for many other movement activists, including members of the

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segreg ...

(SNCC),

Septima Clark Septima Poinsette Clark (May 3, 1898 – December 15, 1987) was an African American educator and civil rights activist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and ...

Anne Braden Anne McCarty Braden (July 28, 1924 – March 6, 2006) was an American civil rights activist, journalist, and educator dedicated to the cause of racial equality. She and her husband bought a suburban house for an African American couple during Ji ...

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

James Bevel James Luther Bevel (October 19, 1936 – December 19, 2008) was a minister and leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the United States. As a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and then as its Director of Direct ...

, Hollis Watkins,

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, Ralph Abernathy and

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

in the mid- and-late 1950s. Backlash against the school's involvement with the Civil Rights Movement led to the school's closure by the state of Tennessee in 1961. Staff reorganized and moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where they rechartered Highlander under the name "Highlander Research and Education Center." Highlander has been in its current (and longest consecutive) home in New Market, Tennessee, since 1971. Highlander's archives reside at the

Wisconsin Historical Society The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of N ...

and the Louis Round Wilson Library at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...

History

Early years

The Highlander Folk School was originally established in Grundy County, Tennessee, on land donated for this purpose by educator Lilian Wyckoff Johnson. When Highlander was founded in 1932, the United States was in the midst of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Workers in all parts of the country were met with major resistance by employers when they tried to organize

labor unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...

, especially in the South. Against that backdrop, Horton, West and Dombrowski created the Highlander School "to provide an educational center in the South for the training of rural and industrial leaders, and for the conservation and enrichment of the indigenous cultural values of the mountains." Horton was influenced by observing rural adult education schools in

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started in the 19th century by Danish Lutheran Bishop N. F. S. Grundtvig. During the 1930s and 1940s, the school's main focus was labor education and the training of labor organizers. In the 1930s,

Myra Page Dorothy Markey (born Dorothy Page Gary, 1897–1993), known by the pen name Myra Page, was a 20th-century American communist writer, journalist, union activist, and teacher. Background Page was born Dorothy Page Gary on October 1, 1897, ...

taught here.

Civil rights

In the 1950s, Highlander turned its energies to the rising issues of

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

and

desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

. In addition to

Zilphia Horton Zilphia Horton (April 14, 1910 – April 11, 1956) was an American musician, community organizer, educator, Civil Rights activist, and folklorist. She is best known for her work with her husband Myles Horton at the Highlander Folk School wher ...

, and others, a key figure during this period was John Beauchamp Thompson, a minister and educator who became one of the principal fund-raisers and speakers for the school. Highlander worked with

Esau Jenkins Esau Jenkins (July 3, 1910 – October 30, 1972) was a South Carolina African-American Human Rights leader, businessman, local preacher, and community organizer. He was the founder and leader of many organizations and institutions which helped imp ...

of Johns Island to develop a literacy program for Blacks who were prevented from registering to vote by literacy requirements. The Citizenship Education Schools coordinated by

with assistance from Bernice Robinson spread widely throughout the South and helped thousands of Blacks register to vote. Later, the program was transferred to the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...

(SCLC), led by

, because the state of Tennessee was threatening to close the school. Civil rights activists, most notably King, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Julian Bond, came to the Center at different times. Lewis revealed later that he had his first meal in an integrated setting at Highlander. "I was a young adult, but I had never eaten a meal in the company of Black and white diners," the congressman wrote. He continued, "Highlander was the place that Rosa Parks witnessed a demonstration of equality that helped inspire her to keep her seat on a Montgomery bus, just a few weeks after her first visit. She saw Septima Clark, a legendary black educator, teaching side-by-side with (Highlander founder Myles) Horton. For her it was revolutionary. She had never seen an integrated team of equals working together, and it inspired her." The civil rights anthem, " We Shall Overcome", was adapted from a

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

song, by Highlander music director

, wife of Myles Horton, from the singing of striking tobacco factory workers from the 1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike. Shortly afterward, it was published by folksinger

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...

in the People's Songs bulletin. It was revived at Highlander by

Guy Carawan Guy Hughes Carawan Jr. (July 28, 1927 – May 2, 2015) was an American folk musician and musicologist. He served as music director and song leader for the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee. Carawan is famo ...

, who succeeded Zilphia Horton as Highlander's music director in 1959.

taught the song to

SNCC The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segreg ...

at their first convening at

Shaw University Shaw University is a private Baptist historically black university in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. Founded on December 1, 1865, Shaw University is the oldest HBCU to begin offering courses in ...

. The song has since spread and become one of the most recognizable movement songs in the world.

Backlash

Highlander has been the target of violence and suppression many times since being founded as the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, in 1932. In reaction to the school's work, during the late 1950s, Southern newspapers attacked Highlander for supposedly creating racial strife. In 1957, the

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Commission on Education published a pamphlet titled "Highlander Folk School: Communist Training School, Monteagle, Tennessee". A controversial photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. with writer, trade union organizer, civil rights activist and co-founder of the Highlander School Donald Lee West, was published. According to information obtained by the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice ...

, West was the District Director of the Communist Party in North Carolina, though West denied he had ever been a member of the Communist Party. In 1961, the state of Tennessee revoked Highlander's charter, and confiscated and auctioned the school's land and property. According to Septima Clark's autobiography, ''Echo In My Soul'' (page 225), the Highlander Folk School was closed, because it engaged in commercial activities in violation its charter. The Highlander Folk School was chartered by the State of Tennessee as a non-profit corporation without stockholders or owners. Once the State revoked its charter, no one could make a legal claim on any of the property. In 1961, the Highlander staff reincorporated as the Highlander Research and Education Center and moved to

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

. In 1971, it relocated to New Market, Tennessee.

Appalachian issues

In the 1960s and 1970s, Highlander focused on worker health and safety in the coalfields of

. Its leaders, including its former president Mike Clark, played a role in the emergence of the region's

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justi ...

movement. It helped start the Southern Appalachian Leadership Training (SALT) program, and coordinated a survey of land ownership in Appalachia. In the 1980s and 1990s, Highlander broadened their base into broader regional, national, and international

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment (biophysical), environment, par ...

; struggles against the negative effects of

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

; grassroots leadership development in under-resourced communities. Beginning in the 1990s, became involved in

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

issues, both in the U.S. and internationally. Youth-focused organizing is another aspect of Highlander's work.

Community-based and participatory research

Highlander programming oftentimes incorporates community-led or participatory research projects. This approach can be traced back to Myles Horton and other founding figures in their mission to encourage communities to trust in and learn from their own experiences. In the 1970s, Highlander staff began to plan and facilitate participatory projects surrounding topics that are often complex for non-expert audiences such as environmental risk and corporate land ownership. This work has continued through collaborations that prioritize building relationships and networks so that people with shared stakes can find themselves in conversation with one another.

Popular education

In line with its stated mission of "supporting eoples'efforts to take collective action to shape their own destiny," many Highlander projects incorporate popular education strategies.

Popular education Popular education is a concept grounded in notions of class, political struggle, and social transformation. The term is a translation from the Spanish educación popular or the Portuguese educação popular and rather than the English usage ...

, which draws on the experiences and knowledges of a group of people, is often linked to participatory research initiatives. Highlander uses popular education tactics to develop shared leadership and to emphasize the expertise of lived experiences.

Since 2000

Current focuses of Highlander include issues of democratic participation and

economic justice Justice in economics is a subcategory of welfare economics. It is a "set of moral and ethical principles for building economic institutions". Economic justice aims to create opportunities for every person to have a dignified, productive and creat ...

, with a particular focus on

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

, immigrants to the U.S. from Latin America,

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s, LGBT, and

poor Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse

white people. Highlander's work with immigrants focuses on uplifting immigrant and refugee leaders at local, state, and national levels. Their work with immigrant rights focuses on highlighting intersectionality with other social movements and increasing the presence of the US South in the movement. In 2014, the Tennessee Preservation Trust placed the original Grundy County school building on its list of the ten most "endangered" historic sites in Tennessee. On March 29, 2019, a fire destroyed a building that housed executive offices at the Highlander Center. Nobody was inside the building, but many items were lost, including decades of historic documents, speeches, artifacts, and memorabilia.

White supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

, in the form of the

Iron Guard The Iron Guard ( ro, Garda de Fier) was a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel Michael () or the Legionnaire Movement (). It was stron ...

symbol, was found at the site, and the county and state are both investigating whether

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wate ...

was committed.

Directors

The directors of Highlander have been: *

, 1932–1969 * Frank T. Adams, 1970–1973 * Mike Clark, 1973–1978 * Helen Matthews Lewis, 1978–79 * Mike Clark, 1979–1984 * Hubert E. Sapp, 1984–1993 *

John Gaventa John Gaventa (born 1949) is currently the director of research at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, where he has been a Fellow since 1996. From 2011 to 2014, he served as the director of the Coady International Institute ...

, 1993–1996 * Jim Sessions, 1996–1999 * Suzanne Pharr, 1999–2003 * Mónica Hernández and Tami Newman, interim co-directors 2004–2005 * Pam McMichael, interim director, 2005; director 2006–2016 * Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Allyn Maxfield Steele, co-directors since 2016

Tennessee Historical Commission Marker

A Tennessee Historical Commission Marker is present near Highlander's original location outside of

Monteagle, Tennessee Monteagle is a town in Franklin, Grundy, and Marion counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, in the Cumberland Plateau region of the southeastern part of the state. The population was 1,238 at the 2000 census – 804 of the town's 1,238 resid ...

. The text of the marker reads:

Photo gallery

File:HiglanderFolkSchoolCenter-HistoricalMarkerFront.JPG, Historical Marker Back File:HiglanderFolkSchoolCenter-HistoricalMarkerBack.JPG, Historical Marker Back File:HiglanderFolkSchoolCenter-Library2014.JPG, Highlander Folk School Library Panoramic in 2014. Monteagle, Tennessee File:Highlander Education Center Mural.jpg, Mural by Mike Alewitz at the Highlander Research and Education Center

Notes

References

Highlander Research and Education Center: Highlander Research and Education Center Records, Wisconsin Historical Society.

Highlander Research and Education Center's Audiovisual Materials, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
* John M. Glen, ''Highlander: No Ordinary School, 1932–1962''. The University Press of Kentucky, 1988.
Federal Bureau of Investigation ''Highlander Folk School'' files obtained under the Freedom of Information Act
* Frank Adams, with Myles Horton, ''Unearthing Seeds of Fire: The Idea of Highlander''. John F. Blair: 1975. * Jeff Biggers, "The United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment to America". Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker and Hoard. * Myles Horton, with Herbert and Judith Kohl, '' The Long Haul: An Autobiography''. Teachers College Press: 1997. * Myles Horton and Paulo Friere, ''We Make the Road by Walking''. Temple University Press: 1990.
History - 1930–1953: Beginnings & The Labor Years

* Pam McMichael, "Dear Friend of Highlander", ''Highlander Reports'', April 2005,
PDF
* Eliot Wigginton, ed., ''Refuse to Stand Silently By: An Oral History of Grass Roots Social Activism in America, 1921–1964''. Doubleday, 1991. * Highlander Research and Education Center's Audiovisual Materials #20361, Southern Folklife Collection, Louis Round Wilson Library,

. * Highlander Research and Education Center Records, 1917–2005,

External links

*
Highlander Research and Education Center Records, 1917-1978 at the Wisconsin Historical Society--Over 350,000 documents and 1800 audio recordings from the Highlander Folk School
*
"Integrated in All Respects": Ed Friend's Highlander Folk School Film and the Politics of Segregation
' in th
Digital Library of Georgia

Myles F. Horton, Tennessee's "Radical Hillbilly": The Highlander Folk School and Education for Social Change in America, the South, and the Volunteer State
By James B. Jones, Jr. ''Southern History Net'' website. * The Highlander Folk School's FBI files, hosted at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

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Highlander Folk School 25th Anniversary
Civil Rights Digital Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Highlander Research And Education Center Education in Tennessee History of civil rights in the United States History of labor relations in the United States Labor schools Monteagle, Tennessee Education in Jefferson County, Tennessee New Market, Tennessee Educational institutions established in 1932 Labor studies organizations Leadership training Buildings and structures in Jefferson County, Tennessee History of Knoxville, Tennessee 1932 establishments in Tennessee