Early years The Highlander Folk School was originally established in Grundy County, Tennessee, on land donated by educator
Lilian Wyckoff Johnson. When the school was founded in 1932, the U.S. was in the midst of the
Great Depression. Workers in all parts of the country, especially in the South, were met with major resistance by employers when they tried to organize
labor unions. Against that backdrop, Horton, West and Dombrowski created the Highlander Folk School "to provide an educational center in the South for the training of rural and industrial leaders, and for the conservation and enrichment of the indigenous cultural values of the mountains." Horton was influenced by observing
rural adult education schools in
Denmark started in the 19th century by Danish Lutheran Bishop
N. F. S. Grundtvig. This Grundtvig model shaped Highlander’s interactive, community‑based teaching style. During the 1930s and 1940s, the school's main focus was labor education and the training of labor organizers. Highlander played a major role in the ongoing Southern labor struggles of the period, offering training for textile workers, miners, and other industrial laborers. The school worked with Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) unions and partnered with local labor groups involved in interracial organizing. Among its first teachers was the radical activist and author
Myra Page. Clark played a vital role in shaping the CEP's curriculum and approach, while Robinson became the first Citizenship School teacher. The CEP grew into a larger regional network and began training local leaders, expanding voter registration, and creating grassroots citizenship classes throughout the South. As state pressure on Highlander increased, the program was transferred to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which had the resources and political protection necessary to continue expansion. Civil rights activists, most notably King, Bevel, Bernard Lafayette, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Julian Bond, came to the Center at different times. Lewis revealed later that he had his first meal in an integrated setting at Highlander. "I was a young adult, but I had never eaten a meal in the company of Black and white diners," the congressman wrote. He continued, "Highlander was the place that Rosa Parks witnessed a demonstration of equality that helped inspire her to keep her seat on a Montgomery bus, just a few weeks after her first visit. She saw Septima Clark, a legendary black educator, teaching side-by-side with (Highlander founder Myles) Horton. For her it was revolutionary. She had never seen an integrated team of equals working together, and it inspired her." The civil rights anthem, "
We Shall Overcome", was adapted from a
gospel song, by Highlander music director
Zilphia Horton, wife of Myles Horton, from the singing of striking tobacco factory workers from the
1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike. Shortly afterward, it was published by
folksinger Pete Seeger in the
People's Songs bulletin. It was revived at Highlander by
Guy Carawan, who succeeded Zilphia Horton as Highlander's music director in 1959.
Guy Carawan taught the song to
SNCC at their first convening at
Shaw University. The song has since spread and become one of the most recognizable movement songs in the world.
Backlash Highlander was the target of violence and suppression many times since its founding. In reaction to the school's desegregation work in the 1950s, Southern politicians, business leaders, and newspapers accused Highlander of fomenting racial strife. In 1957, the
Georgia Commission on Education published a pamphlet titled "Highlander Folk School: Communist Training School, Monteagle, Tennessee". A photo of Martin Luther King Jr. alongside Highlander co-founder and known radical
Donald Lee West appeared throughout the South, including on billboards. In its surveillance of West, the
FBI reported that he had been district director of the Communist Party in North Carolina in the 1930s, though he denied ever being a Communist Party member. Segregationist groups utilized pamphlets, billboards, and newspaper campaigns to portray Highlander as a communist or terrorist organization, in hopes to shift public opinion against the school and its activist agenda. During this period, the FBI conducted intense, long-term surveillance of Highlander, gathering reports on staff, programs, students, and visitors. Many of these reports contained false and misinterpreted claims about the mission of the school and its political ties, which created further suspicion. State officials developed a broad strategy that focused on suppressing the success of Highlander through intense legal pressure. Authorities in Tennessee worked closely alongside federal agencies in an effort to target the school. In July 1959, Highlander was raided and padlocked during an interracial voter-education workshop. State officials seized all resources, removed the participants, and shut down the building in response. After a lengthy court battle, the state of Tennessee revoked Highlander's charter, and confiscated and auctioned the school's land and property. According to Septima Clark's autobiography, the Highlander Folk School was closed because it engaged in commercial activities in violation of its charter, which specified it as a non-profit corporation without stockholders or owners. The state argued that Highlander had violated its charter, while Highlander insisted that the charges were politically motivated. When the court ruled in favor of the state, Highlander lost its charter and property.
Appalachian issues In the 1960s and 1970s, Highlander focused on worker health and safety in the coalfields of
Appalachia. The school's leaders, including president Mike Clark, played a role in the emergence of the region's
environmental justice movement. Highlander helped start the Southern Appalachian Leadership Training (SALT) program, and coordinated a survey of land ownership in Appalachia. In the 1980s and 1990s, Highlander expanded into broader regional, national, and international
environmentalism;
struggles against the negative effects of
globalization; and grassroots leadership development in under-resourced communities. Beginning in the 1990s, became involved in
LGBT issues, both in the U.S. and internationally, and in youth-focused organizing.
Community-based and participatory research Highlander programming oftentimes incorporates community-led or participatory research projects. This approach can be traced back to Myles Horton and other founding figures in their mission to encourage communities to trust in and learn from their own experiences. In the 1970s, Highlander staff began to plan and facilitate participatory projects surrounding topics that are often complex for non-expert audiences such as environmental risk and corporate land ownership. This work has continued through collaborations that prioritize building relationships and networks so that people with shared stakes can find themselves in conversation with one another.
Popular education In line with its stated mission of "supporting [peoples'] efforts to take collective action to shape their own destiny," many Highlander projects incorporate popular education strategies.
Popular education, which draws on the experiences and knowledges of a group of people, is often linked to participatory research initiatives. Highlander uses popular education tactics to develop shared leadership and to emphasize the expertise of lived experiences. ==Since 2000==