2E 75 HIGHLANDER FOLK SCHOOL 1932-1962

In 1932, Myles Horton and Don West founded Highlander Folk School, located ½ mile north of this site. It quickly became one of the few schools in the South committed to the cause of organized labor, economic justice, and an end to racial segregation. Courses included labor issues, literacy, leadership, and non-violent desegregation strategies, with workshops led by Septima Clark. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Eleanor Roosevelt found inspiration for the modern civil rights movement there. Opponents of its causes tried to close the school.

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Following a 1959-1960 trial in Grundy County, the State of Tennessee revoked the school’s charter. It was adjudged to have violated segregation laws, sold beer without a license, and conveyed property to Myles Horton for his home. When the sheriff padlocked the school, Horton proclaimed Highlander to be an idea rather than simply a group of buildings, adding “You can’t padlock an idea.” In a 1979 Ford Foundation Report, Highlander was singled out as the most notable American experiment in adult education for social change.