Highlander Research and Education Center facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The Highlander Research and Education Center, once called the Highlander Folk School, is a special school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. It helps people become leaders for social justice.

Myles Horton, who started the Highlander Folk School.

The school was started in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, teacher Don West, and minister James A. Dombrowski. It was first located in Summerfield, Grundy County, Tennessee. The school was shown in the 1937 film People of the Cumberland and the 1985 film You Got to Move.

Highlander trains leaders for social movements across the South, Appalachia, and even worldwide. In its early days, Highlander helped with the labor movement in Appalachia and the Southern United States. In the 1950s, it played a big part in the American Civil Rights Movement.

It trained civil rights leader Rosa Parks before her famous role in the Montgomery bus boycott. Many other activists also trained there, including members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Septima Clark, Anne Braden, Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, Hollis Watkins, Bernard Lafayette, Ralph Abernathy, and John Lewis. Because of its work in the Civil Rights Movement, the state of Tennessee closed the school in 1961.

The staff then started the school again in Knoxville, Tennessee. They called it the "Highlander Research and Education Center." Since 1971, Highlander has been in its current home in New Market, Tennessee. Highlander's old records are kept at the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Louis Round Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Highlander's History and Impact
Highlander Since 2000
Highlander's Directors
Historical Marker
Images for kids
See also

Highlander's History and Impact

Starting the School: Early Years

The Highlander Folk School began in Grundy County, Tennessee. Land for the school was given by teacher Lilian Wyckoff Johnson. When Highlander opened in 1932, the United States was in the middle of the Great Depression. This was a time when many people had no jobs and struggled to make a living.

Workers faced big problems when they tried to form labor unions, especially in the South. Myles Horton, Don West, and James Dombrowski created Highlander to be a learning place. It was meant to train leaders for rural and industrial areas. It also aimed to keep mountain culture alive. Horton was inspired by adult education schools in Denmark. In the 1930s and 1940s, the school mostly focused on teaching about labor rights and training union organizers.

Fighting for Civil Rights

In the 1950s, Highlander started focusing on civil rights and ending segregation. Key people during this time included Myles Horton, Zilphia Horton, and John Beauchamp Thompson. Highlander worked with Esau Jenkins from Johns Island, South Carolina. They created a program to teach Black people to read. This helped them register to vote, as many were stopped by unfair literacy tests.

These "Citizenship Education Schools" were led by Septima Clark and Bernice Robinson. They spread across the South and helped thousands of Black people register to vote. Later, this program moved to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), led by Martin Luther King Jr.. This happened because Tennessee was threatening to close Highlander.

Many civil rights leaders visited Highlander. These included King, Bevel, Bernard Lafayette, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Julian Bond. John Lewis later shared that he had his first meal with both Black and white people at Highlander. He said, "Highlander was the place that Rosa Parks saw equality in action." She saw Septima Clark, a Black educator, teaching alongside Myles Horton. This was new and inspiring for her.

The famous civil rights song, "We Shall Overcome", was adapted at Highlander. Music director Zilphia Horton, Myles Horton's wife, heard it from striking tobacco workers in 1945. Later, folksinger Pete Seeger published it. Guy Carawan, who became Highlander's music director in 1959, brought the song back. He taught it to SNCC members. The song has since become one of the most recognized movement songs worldwide.

Facing Challenges and Moving Forward

Highlander has faced many challenges since it started. In the late 1950s, newspapers in the South attacked Highlander. They claimed it was causing racial problems. In 1957, a group in Georgia called it a "Communist Training School." A photo of Martin Luther King Jr. with Don West, a co-founder, caused controversy.

In 1961, the state of Tennessee took away Highlander's official permission to operate. They took its land and sold its property. The state claimed Highlander broke segregation laws and sold beer without a license. Myles Horton famously said, "You can't padlock an idea." In 1961, Highlander's staff started a new organization. They called it the Highlander Research and Education Center. They moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1971, it moved to its current home in New Market, Tennessee.

Focusing on Appalachian Issues

In the 1960s and 1970s, Highlander worked on worker safety in the coal mines of Appalachia. Its leaders, like Mike Clark, helped start the region's environmental justice movement. Highlander also helped create the Southern Appalachian Leadership Training (SALT) program. It also looked into who owned land in Appalachia.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Highlander expanded its work. It focused on wider environmental issues and fighting the negative effects of globalization. It also helped develop grassroots leaders in communities that needed help. Starting in the 1990s, Highlander also became involved in LGBT issues. Work with young people is another important part of Highlander's efforts.

Learning Through Community and Experience

Highlander often uses community-led or participatory research projects. This means that communities themselves help find answers to their own problems. This idea came from Myles Horton. He wanted communities to trust their own experiences and learn from them. In the 1970s, Highlander helped people understand complex topics like environmental risks. This work continues today. It helps people with shared interests connect and talk to each other.

Highlander also uses "popular education" strategies. This way of learning uses the experiences and knowledge of a group of people. It is often linked to participatory research. Highlander uses popular education to help everyone become a leader. It also shows that everyday experiences are valuable knowledge.

Highlander Since 2000

Today, Highlander focuses on issues like democratic participation and economic justice. It pays special attention to youth, immigrants from Latin America, African Americans, LGBT people, and poor white people. Highlander works with immigrants to help their leaders grow at local, state, and national levels. Their work highlights how immigrant rights connect with other social movements.

In 2014, the original school building in Grundy County was listed as one of Tennessee's most "endangered" historic sites.

On March 29, 2019, a fire destroyed an office building at the Highlander Center. No one was hurt, but many historic documents and items were lost. White supremacist graffiti was found at the site. Authorities are investigating if the fire was set on purpose.

Highlander's Directors

The people who have led Highlander are:

Myles Horton, 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, 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

Historical Marker

A special marker from the Tennessee Historical Commission is near Highlander's first location outside of Monteagle, Tennessee. The marker tells the story of the school:

2E 75
HIGHLANDER FOLK SCHOOL
1932-1962

In 1932, Myles Horton and Don West started Highlander Folk School. It was located about half a mile north of this spot. It quickly became one of the few schools in the South that supported organized labor, economic fairness, and ending racial segregation. Classes included topics like labor issues, reading and writing, leadership, and peaceful ways to end segregation. Septima Clark led many workshops. Important figures like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Eleanor Roosevelt found inspiration there for the modern civil rights movement. People who disagreed with its goals tried to close the school.

Continued
(Back)

After a trial in Grundy County in 1959–1960, the State of Tennessee took away the school's charter. It was found to have broken segregation laws, sold beer without a license, and given property to Myles Horton for his home. When the sheriff locked the school, Horton said Highlander was an idea, not just buildings. He added, "You can't padlock an idea." In a 1979 report, Highlander was called the most important American example of adult education for social change.

Tennessee Historical Commission