Highlander Folk School

Highlander Folk School
source
Name	Highlander Folk School
Founded	1932
Founder	Myles Horton, Don West
Location	Monteagle, Tennessee
Focus	Adult education, labor movement, civil rights movement
Successor	Highlander Research and Education Center

Highlander Folk School

The Highlander Folk School was an influential adult education center and organizing hub founded in 1932 in Monteagle, Tennessee. It played a pivotal role in training activists for the labor movement of the 1930s and 1940s and later became a crucial incubator for the civil rights movement in the 1950s and early 1960s. Its unique educational philosophy, emphasizing grassroots leadership and participatory democracy, empowered generations of social justice leaders.

Founding and early mission

Highlander Folk School was founded in 1932 by Myles Horton, a Tennessee native, and Don West, a Georgia-born poet and minister. Inspired by the Danish folk high school movement and Horton's own experiences with settlement houses like Hull House, the school's early mission was to empower the rural and industrial poor of the Appalachian South. Its initial focus was on economic justice, seeking to educate and organize sharecroppers and industrial workers. The school was established with a strong belief in socialism and economic democracy, aiming to build a broad-based movement for radical social change during the Great Depression.

Educational philosophy and methods

Highlander's educational approach was revolutionary, rejecting traditional academic models in favor of popular education. Horton, influenced by John Dewey's theories of experiential learning, developed a method where the curriculum emerged from the experiences and problems of the students themselves. This method, often called "the Highlander idea," centered on participatory democracy and dialogic learning. Workshops were not lectures but facilitated discussions where coal miners, farmworkers, and domestic workers analyzed their own conditions and developed collective strategies. The school famously used folk music and cultural organizing, with figures like Zilphia Horton and later Guy Carawan collecting and teaching songs like "We Shall Overcome" as tools for unity and morale.

Role in labor organizing

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Highlander served as a vital training ground for the burgeoning labor movement in the Southern United States. The school hosted workshops for organizers from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), particularly for the Textile Workers Union of America and the United Mine Workers. It trained leaders who would go on to pivotal strikes, such as the 1934 textile strike and efforts in auto worker plants. Highlander's integrated workshops, which brought together Black and white workers in the deeply segregated South, were both radical and dangerous, challenging Jim Crow laws while building solidarity. This period established Highlander's reputation as a "dangerous" institution to the Southern political establishment.

Centrality to the Civil Rights Movement

In the 1950s, Highlander shifted its primary focus to the struggle against racial segregation, becoming what Martin Luther King Jr. called a "beacon of light" for the movement. Under the guidance of Septima Clark, who joined the staff in 1954, Highlander developed the groundbreaking Citizenship School program. These schools, often held on the Sea Islands of South Carolina, taught disenfranchised Black adults to read, write, and pass literacy tests in order to register to vote. The program was a massive success, directly contributing to a significant increase in Black voter registration across the South. Highlander's workshops provided a rare, safe, and integrated space where emerging leaders could strategize freely.

Key workshops and participants

Highlander's workshops brought together a who's who of civil rights leadership. Rosa Parks attended a workshop on school desegregation just months before her historic act of defiance on a Montgomery bus in 1955. John Lewis, James Bevel, Diane Nash, and Bernard Lafayette of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) were trained in the principles of nonviolent direct action. Ella Baker, a key architect of SNCC, frequently collaborated with Highlander. Fannie Lou Hamer drew inspiration from its model. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Highlander's 25th-anniversary celebration in 1957, a visit later used against him in red-baiting propaganda. These gatherings were essential for networking, strategic planning, and leadership development.

Government opposition and closure

Highlander's radical, integrated work made it a constant target for government surveillance and harassment by white supremacist groups. It was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the Tennessee State Legislature, which labeled it a "communist training school." The school faced relentless attacks from segregationist politicians like Senator James O. Eastland. In 1959, the state of Tennessee launched a politically motivated legal campaign, culminating in a court order to revoke Highlander's charter and confiscate its property in 1961. The school was officially closed, and its Monteagle campus was seized and sold. This action was a direct attempt to destroy a key institution of the movement.

Legacy and continuation

The closure of the original school was not its end. Myles Horton and the staff immediately re-established the work as the Highlander Research and Education Center, which continues its mission today. The Citizenship School model was transferred to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), where it became the cornerstone of its successful voter registration campaigns. Septima Clark and Clyde. The Carolina. The Southern Civil Rights Movement. The school's legacy is also powerfully embodied in 1963, the 1960s. The 1964 Civil Rights Act of Civil Rights Act of ights Act. The school's legacy is a testament to the power of social justice and the Civil Rights Movement and education. The school's charter. The school's. The legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. The school's. The school's. The Legacy of Highlander's. The school's. The school's. The school's. The school|Legacy of Highlander Folk School, the school's. The school's. The school's. The school|Highlander Folk School and the civil rights movement.