IN THE MIDST OF CALLS FOR SOCIAL REFORM, interested educators
and volunteers should take note of the quiet history of
education for social change in the United States. The Highlander
Research and Education Center, originally known as
the Highlander Folk School, was started in Monteagle, Tennessee
in 1932 by Myles Horton and Don West. Highlander
is an adult education school located in the mountains of
eastern Tennessee. The school institutes programs and
classes that focus on democratic social change.
Since its founding, the Highlander staff has focused on
enacting social change by working with social activists,
meeting the needs of the poor and oppressed, and aligning
itself with social movements with the same goals. Myles
Horton would become synonymous with Highlander after
Don West left in 1933 to pursue a different political agenda.
Horton said that education
was always political,
people had their own solutions
to their own problems,
and it would just take the
right conditions, discussion
and respect to arrive at the
solutions. Since 1932, Highlander
has been such a place
for thousands of social
activists to gather.
Highlander gained notoriety
when the staff worked
closely with the labor rights
movement during the
1930s-1940s. Highlander’s
first educational programs
focused on training union
leaders organized under the American Federation of Labor
and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Union leaders
travelled to Highlander, learned effective strategies
from other union members and returned to their homes to
implement and teach others the lessons they learned.
During the mid-1950s, the Highlander staff began to
turn its attention toward issues of race. It started a network
of schools known as the Citizenship Schools that
created educational programs among southern blacks
about the strategies needed to bypass laws which prevented
them from voting. Within ten years, Martin Luther
King, Jr. had taken over the schools and over 50,000
African Americans had registered to vote. In 1955 Rosa
Parks had attended classes at Highlander just weeks
before she defiantly refused to give up her seat, which
instigated the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Various civil
rights organizations such as the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee had used Highlander as a safe
place to discuss their experiences, develop new strategies
and teach others interested in participating in the Civil
Rights Movement.
Since its role in the Civil Rights Movement, Highlander
has renewed its interest in local Appalachian issues such as
environmental protection,
cleanup projects, land ownership,
and labor education.
It has also worked on international
issues targeting the
illiteracy among the poor
and unfair immigration practices.
The radical Brazilian
educator, Paulo Freire,
worked and taught at Highlander
during the 1980s.
Perhaps its greatest honor
was bestowed in 1982 when
Highlander was nominated
for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The history of Highlander
is also defined by the resistance
the school encountered.
Highlander is a school for radical progressive education,
known to be ahead of its own time. Conservative
locals and politicians have historically frowned upon Highlander’s
public commitment to racial, political and social
equality. One provocative fact of Highlander retreats during
the labor and civil rights movement was that the school
was racially integrated, where black and white students
would live, eat and commune together in a region that was
otherwise committed to strict Jim Crow racial segregation.
The school was subject to the harassment of the state government
and the violence of the Ku Klux Klan.
In the McCarthy era, Highlander was branded as a
“Communist Training School.” The Internal Revenue Service
revoked its educational tax exempt status in 1957.
The Tennessee legislature confiscated Highlander property
in 1962 and auctioned off its property. The school buildings
at Highlander were mysteriously burned thereafter.
As Myles Horton was quick to note, however, Highlander
was first and foremost an idea. Highlander relocated to
Knoxville until 1971 when it moved to its current location
in New Market, Tennessee. Highlander has proven to be
resilient in the face of such resistance.
Highlander continues its historical mission of studying,
revising and teaching solutions to endemic social,
political and economic issues. It currently practices
methods of participatory action research, where local
activists come to Highlander for resources and guidance
in identifying, researching and solving the problems
directly facing their communities. The school currently
holds its own workshops and offer many resources that
focus on civil and human rights, humane immigration
policy, criminal justice reform, economic justice and
workers’ rights, international peace and solidarity, environmental
justice, youth leadership, and racial, gender
and sexual discrimination. In keeping with its original
educational method of meeting the needs and interests
of the students, educators and activists interested and
concerned with social change can use Highlander’s
buildings and land, which are located in the peaceful
mountains of eastern Tennessee. For more information,
visit: http://www.highlandercenter.org.
Get Connected
Search Public i
Public i
Get Connected
Archives
- December 2024
- October 2024
- July 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- February 2024
- November 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- February 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- September 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- November 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- September 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- January 2016
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- July 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- November 2008
- October 2008
- August 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- June 2005
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- November 2002
- October 2002
- April 2002
- March 2002
- February 2002
- December 2001
- November 2001
- October 2001
- September 2001
- August 2001
- July 2001