Highlander Research and Education Center (Knoxville, Tenn.)

Myles Horton founded the Highlander Folk School in 1932 as an adult education institution based on the principle of empowerment. Horton and other School members worked towards mobilizing labor unions in the 1930s and Citizenship Schools during the civil rights movement beginning in the late 1950s. They worked with Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Guy and Candie Carawan, Septima Clark, and Rosa Parks, among others.

In 1959, the School was investigated for Communist activities and confiscation by the state of Tennessee. Soon after, its buildings mysteriously burned to the ground. The Highlander Folk School was re-chartered in 1971 as the Highlander Research and Education Center near Knoxville, Tenn.

From the description of Highlander Research and Education Center collection, 1937-1938 and undated [manuscript]. WorldCat record id: 56571731

Myles Horton founded the Highlander Folk School in 1932 as an adult education institution based on the principle of empowerment. Horton (1905-1991) was born and raised among the Appalachian Mountains in Savannah, Tenn. He grew up in a working-class family that believed in education and community service. His parents were schoolteachers until the late 1920s, after which they worked for the Works Progress Administration and other employers. Horton began working in packing plants before graduating from high school. During this time, he staged a tomato packers' strike and negotiated raises for workers.

In 1924, Horton attended Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tenn. He later studied at Union Theological Seminary and traveled to Denmark to explore educational reform. He investigated the work of Jane Addams and John Dewey and came to believe that the way to affect change in society was to give the poor and disenfranchised a place to organize and to tell their stories.

In 1932, the Highlander Folk School began to take form in Monteagle, Tenn. Horton and other School members worked towards mobilizing labor unions in the 1930s and Citizenship Schools during the civil rights movement beginning in the late 1950s. They worked with Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Guy and Candie Carawan, Septima Clark, and Rosa Parks, among others. Parks attended a workshop at the Highlander Folk School shortly before refusing to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Ala. Zilphia Horton, the music and drama director at Highlander and Myles Horton's wife, heard the song We Shall Overcome at a workshop at the School. She later taught the song to Pete Seeger who popularized it around the country. We Shall Overcome became one of the anthems of the civil rights movement. Zilphia Horton died in 1955 in an accident

In 1959, the School was investigated for Communist activities. The investigation led to the School's confiscation by the state of Tennessee. Soon after, its buildings mysteriously burned to the ground.

The Highlander Folk School was re-chartered in 1971 as the Highlander Research and Education Center near Knoxville, Tenn., where it continued to provide education and support to poor and working-class people fighting economic injustice, poverty, prejudice, and environmental destruction and to help grassroots leaders create tools for building broad-based movements for change.

From the guide to the Highlander Research and Education Center Collection, 1937-1948 and undated, (Southern Folklife Collection)