NEW MARKET Tenn.
The little school tucked away in the east Tennessee mountains may have faded from the public spotlight, but it was once at the center of the struggle for civil rights.
It has been investigated by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, spied on by a governor of Georgia and marched on by the Klan, but the Highlander Research and Education Center has stuck around.
The school for social justice, which counts Rosa Parks among its alumni and Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt and folk singer Pete Seeger among its supporters, celebrated its 75th birthday this month.
About 1,200 people showed up for the Labor Day weekend party. Punk rockers, hip-hoppers, bearded octogenarians and women in African print dresses brought their families to this tiny town 25 miles northeast of Knoxville to sing, dance, eat barbecue and earnestly discuss how to solve the problems of the world.
“I believe (the school) is as important as it ever was, but it’s addressing issues that are more complex and there’s not an identifiable movement like the civil rights movement,” said Ball State University historian John Glen, who has written a book about the school.
The Highlander Folk School opened in 1932 outside Monteagle and initially worked with labor organizers. During the ’50s and ’60s, the focus of the work turned to civil rights, and today much of Highlander’s work is with immigrants and young people.
