In August 1955, Rosa Parks attended a two-week workshop at Highlander Folk School on implementing school desegregation. Founded in the 1930s by Myles Horton as an adult organizer training school, Highlander sought to build local leadership for social change. Parks arrived at Highlander in low spirits, “tense and nervous” following years of political activity that View Article Rosa Parks attended a 1955 workshop at Highlander four months before refusing to give up her bus seat, an act that ignited the Montgomery bus boycott. Lead by Septima Clark , Esau Jenkins, and Bernice Robinson, Highlander developed a citizenship program in the mid-1950s that taught African Americans their rights as citizens while promoting The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton , educator Don West , and Methodist minister James A. Dombrowski , it was originally located in the community of Learn how Rosa Parks, a civil rights activist and NAACP leader, was inspired by the Highlander Folk School to refuse to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery in 1955. The Highlander Folk School was a racially integrated center for education and social change in the South, and influenced the Voluntown Peace Trust in Connecticut. [In the summer of 1955, Rosa Parks who is Secretary of the Montgomery Alabama NAACP, attends an integrated two-week workshop at the Highlander Folk School (today Highlander Center) in Tennessee. Officially titled, "Racial Desegregation: Implementing the Supreme Court Decision," the workshops and informal discussions cover a wide-range of topics White civil rights advocate Virginia Durr arranged a scholarship for Rosa to attend the August 1955 desegregation workshop at the Highlander Folk School, an interracial training center for labor and civil rights activists in Appalachian Tennessee. She procured Rosa’s round-trip bus ticket from liberal southern publisher Aubrey Williams. The 1950s brought Highlander to national attention, as civil rights legends and social activists learned the ways of non-violent protest there in the school’s “Citizenship School Program.” Rosa Parks’ participation in a Highlander workshop in the summer of 1955, 5 months before her back of the bus incident, had a crucial influence on her. Highlander Folk School MOnt eagle, Tennessee on Montgomery, Ala. , Bus Prot est We t hink you would like to share with us Mrs. Rosa Parks' story of her role in the MO ntgomery Bus Protest . This is the story of how her quiet refusal to move to the back of a bus touched off wr~t is being called t he f irst Passive Other highlights include songbooks compiled and used at Highlander in educational programs by its musical director Zilphia Horton. Some audio excerpts have been made available from the Highlander Folk School Audio Collection from Civil Rights leaders such as John Lewis, C. T. Vivian, Rosa Parks, Angeline Butler, Septima Clark, and Esau Jenkins. Rosa Parks and Myles Horton discuss the importance of the Highlander Folk School, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the American Civil Rights Movement. The story of these two prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement have intervened in their fight for social equality. Includes a fragment of an interview with E. D. Nixon well known civil rights leader. From left, Martin Luther King, Pete Seeger, Charis Horton, Rosa Parks and Ralph Abernathy gather at Highlander's 25th anniversary celebration in Monteagle, Tenn. in 1957. The sessions attracted hundreds of black and white activists including, shortly before the Montgomery bus boycott, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. Highlander-sponsored Citizenship Schools, first held in 1957 on the South Carolina Sea Islands, taught thousands of blacks in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama the literacy skills they needed to The loss is especially devastating, because Highlander Center, formerly known as Highlander Folk School, hosted Rosa Parks at workshops and training sessions. This excerpt from Jeanne Theoharis’s The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks shows just how pivotal and transformative the center was in Parks’s development as an activist. *** Tagged: Allyn Maxfield-Steele, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Highlander Folk School, Highlander Research and Education Center, John Lewis, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Septima Clark, Tennessee Preservation Trust (TPT), Todd Mayo All the property that the Highlander Folk School owned in Grundy County — land, buildings, pond, books — was eventually taken over by the government, which subdivided the land and auctioned it off. Today, many of the structures that were used by Highlander prior to 1959 — such as the library building — are still standing. The Highlander Folk School did not just teach in Monteagle, they hosted programs all across the South. Even Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks attended and taught programs at Highlander. Trainees of the Highlander Folk School programs participated in the Freedom Rides, Freedom Summer, the 1960s sit-ins, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Here is a great photo of young Rosa Parks at Highlander Folk School, but it is not on the Wikipedia page because you need Highlander’s permission to use the image!) This entry was posted in Social Change and tagged highlander folk school , non violence school . The Highlander School draws on the rich and vibrant culture of the southeast and honors the Highlander Folk School of Tennessee, founded in 1932, to educate and empower adults for social change. Students such as Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis and others flocked to the school as it acted as a safe haven for dialogue and non READ: Letter from Durr to Director of Highlander Folk School. Head Note: Virginia Foster Durr was a white woman who supported civil rights for African Americans in Montgomery. Here, Durr writes the director of the Highlander Folk School and his wife. Highlander was a center for training civil rights activists and labor organizers. January 30, 1956 Related primary source: Photo showing Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King at anniversary celebration at Highlander Folk School in Tennessee in 1957. First published by GA Commission on Education (reproduced here in Atlanta Courier) and used to claim “Communist” influences on civil rights leaders. [Parks is visible but not noted in caption.]
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