Highlander Research and Education Center's Audiovisual Materials, 1937-2008

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Highlander Research and Education Center's Audiovisual Materials, 1937-2008

1937-2008

https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/20361/

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. The collection includes acetate and transcription discs documenting the struggle for justice through political and social activism. Recordings of folk music, protest songs, labor songs, and African American religious songs were a large part of this movement and appear here. Acetate discs contain radio programs, recorded songs, and voices of leaders from the civil rights movement, including Esau Jenkins, Septima Clark, Rosa Parks, Miles Horton, and Zilphia Horton. Electrical transcription discs contain a variety of radio programs on issues related to the work at the Highlander Folk School.

1500 items (2.0 linear feet)

eng, Latn

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6627146

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.

Related Entities

There are 7 Entities related to this resource.

Clark, Septima Poinsette, 1898-1987

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d0411x (person)

Septima Poinsette Clark was born in Charleston, S.C. on 3 May 1898, the daughter of Peter Poinsette, who grew up a slave on the plantation of Joel Roberts Poinsett (with conflicting data saying he came on the ship the Wanderer), and Victoria Anderson who grew up mostly in Haiti. The family lived on Henrietta Street; Clark attended small private schools and Avery Institute, getting a teacher's certificate in 1916. Laws did not allow blacks to teach in black city schools, so Clark ta...

Highlander Research and Education Center (Knoxville, Tenn.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mt4jb9 (corporateBody)

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, t...

Parks, Rosa, 1913-2005

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63k42x2 (person)

Rosa Louis Lee Parks (1913-2005) became an icon of the civil rights movement after she was arrested and jailed for refusing to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus in 1955. Her courage led to the Montgomery bus boycott and eventual court order outlawing segregation and discrimination on buses in that city. She was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, the United States' highest civilian honor, in July of 1999. ...

Highlander Folk School (Monteagle, Tenn.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ng8x0r (corporateBody)

Recordings (1954-1960) of folk music and of workshops on leadership, integration and voter registration conducted by the school, including a 1956 integration workshop with comments by Rosa Parks on Martin Luther King and the Montgomery bus boycott. Included are performances by Folk School students, Zilphia Horton, Pete Seeger, Guy Carawan, Jack Elliott, Frank Hamilton, and May Justus. Also, a radio interview (ca. 1960) with Septima Clark and school founder Myles Horton. From the desc...

Jenkins, Esau, 1910-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d9031b (person)

Esau Jenkins was born and raised on Johns Island, S.C. in 1910 and lived most of his life there. With very little formal education, he became a businessman and civil rights leader. Jenkins founded the Progressive Club in 1948, which encouraged local African Americans to register to vote, through the aid of Citizenship Schools, a topic he was educated in by his attendance at Highlander Folk Center in Tennessee. In 1959, he organized the Citizens' Committee of Charleston County dedicated to the ec...

Horton, Myles, 1905-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q248g4 (person)

Myles Horton, founder of the Highlander Folk School (Mounteagle, Tenn.) and civil rights activist. From the description of Myles Horton oral history interview, 1989 Dec. 15. (Georgia State University). WorldCat record id: 38726954 ...

Horton, Zilphia, 1910-1956

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tx4nv5 (person)

Director of Music, Highlander Folk School, Grundy County, Tennessee, 1935-1956; wife of school director Myles Horton. From the description of Zilphia Horton folk music collection, 1935-1956. (Tennessee State Library & Archives). WorldCat record id: 27089264 ...