Voter registration,/ul>
Files include correspondence minutes, annual reports, workshop materials, legal papers, play scripts, song books, clippings, speeches, writings, publications, and transcripts of tape recordings.
Intended as a workers' education school and community center, the Highlander Folk School was founded in 1932 near Monteagle, Tennessee, by Myles Horton and Don West. Within a short time, however, staff and students initiated direct action through participation in a coal strike at Wilder, Tennessee. Among the early staff members were James Dombrowski, Zilla Hawes, John Thompson, Leon Wilson, Ralph Tefferteller, and Zilphia Horton.
The School's first activities included classes in socialism, sociology, and economics for community residents and a program of labor education for outside students who boarded at the school. Within six months, these activities expanded beyond the community as staff and students participated in a coal strike at Wilder, Tennessee. By 1936, these early activities had firmed into a three-pronged program of community work, residence courses, and extension projects. One educational principle was applied in these and in all subsequent
Highlander activities--that it is necessary to start education where people are and then let them decide what is important for them to know.
During the 1930s and 1940s Highlander organized workshops sponsored by the CIO and individual labor unions, and worked closely with the National Farmers Union and the United Packinghouse Workers of America. Following the withdrawal of CIO support in 1949 because of alleged communist influence at Highlander, the School became involved with the civil rights movement in the South. Under the leadership of Esau Jenkins and Septima Clark, Highlander developed programs for training local black community leaders. From 1958 to 1965 citizenship programs and voter registration efforts were important Highlander activities. Beginning in 1965, however, civil rights work was deemphasized, and Highlander turned to contemporary problems of Appalachia, including poverty, strip mining, misuse of land and natural resources, and a lack of political organization.
A major portion of the collection consists of the subject files, including correspondence, reports on workshop sessions, class materials and student projects, alumni lists and questionnaires, addresses and speeches, trial transcripts and legal papers, clippings, labor scripts, song books and sheets, field trip reports, conference programs, news releases, writings about Highlander, and writings by staff members.
50 reels
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