[Xmca-l] Re: The Highlander Center in Tennessee
Andy Blunden
ablunden@mira.net
Fri Aug 29 18:10:44 PDT 2014
Well, there certainly is a lot to be said about Highlander!
I would be very willing to participate in a collaborative effort to
recall this amazing institution to MCA readers. As it happens, its
current incarnation, the Highlander Research and Education Center, is
celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Summer next month, but
one of the astounding features of this place is that it has survived
alive through 82 years in the heart of Dixie teaching radical democracy
to integrated classes and taking its students out on to picket lines and
voter registration drives as part of their "course work". Absolutely
astounding. It is also a "design experiment" inasmuch as Myles Horton
used it to "experiment" to develop his methods of social change. And a
rare case in which a school has literally changed history, and
consciously so.
But the fact is that I am a foreigner who only learnt that this place
existed a couple of weeks ago. Robert Lake on the other hand does know a
lot about it, and maybe Helena Worthen would like to contribute. The
larger context in which it has arisen in my research may just be too
large to introduce into a review article which does Highlander justice,
but I could add a line or too on that if Robert could write the bulk of it.
Andy
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
mike cole wrote:
> This entire line of discussion, including Highlander and Septima seems
> ripe for a kind of review essay for MCA. Might a couple of you
> involved in recuperating this important history consider creating a
> survey/ guide for the rest of us?
> Mike
>
> On Friday, August 29, 2014, Robert Lake <boblake@georgiasouthern.edu
> <mailto:boblake@georgiasouthern.edu>> wrote:
>
> Hi
> Andy,
> I am so glad you are intrigued by Septima's role in the formation
> of SNCC .
> She was often overlooked in the chauvinist culture of the times
> (both white
> and black) and that is why began researching her life. Most people see
> recognize Rosa Parks and Ella Baker's role and later those who were
> credited for the "Freedom School curriculum
> ". If you look at Clark's life and the manner and content of what she
> taught on John's Island and other parts of South Carolina,
> you can easily recognize that her work was seminal in the
> formation of the
> Freedom School Curriculum.
>
> I have tried to get permission to reprint Septima's autobiography
> from her
> family, but I have been unsuccessful. The book by Cynthia Brown
> *Ready
> from Within *has a lot of primary source interviews. Catherine Mellon
> Charon's book, *Septima Clark: Freedom's Teacher *is richly
> detailed with
> many interviews of her friends and documents from primary sources
> from the
> University of Wisconsin Highlander collection.
>
> Here is a link to a recorded interview with Septima that may be
> useful to
> you. I enjoyed hearing her voice at least.
>
> http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0017/menu.html
>
> *Robert*
>
>
>
>
> On Aug 29, 2014 5:05 AM, "Andy Blunden" <ablunden@mira.net
> <javascript:;>> wrote:
>
> > So you are placing Septima Clark right up there in importance,
> Robert.
> > I am part way through a "chronicle" of Highlander, called
> "Highlander. No
> > Ordinary school, 1932-1962". It is very useful for me, so I can get
> > everything in sequence. So here I discovered that Septima Clark
> was in
> > charge of the discussions with the students who later joined
> SNCC. So she
> > is coming into focus for me. I have just ordered two books on her,
> > including the one you recommended. Unfortuantely, an
> autobiography she
> > wrote in 1962 seems to be out of print and entirely unavailable now.
> >
> > Andy
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > *Andy Blunden*
> > http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
> <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
> >
> >
> > Robert Lake wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Andy,
> >> Yes I do. Start with this .
> >> http://highlandercenter.org/about-us/history/
> >>
> >> And this biography of Myles Horton
> >>
> >> http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Haul-An-Autobiography/dp/0807737003
> >> and the biography of Septima Clark.
> >>
> >> http://www.amazon.com/Freedoms-Teacher-Life-Septima-
> >> Clark/dp/0807872229/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=
> >> 1408889271&sr=1-2&keywords=septima+clark <http://www.amazon.com/
> >> Freedoms-Teacher-Life-Septima-Clark/dp/0807872229/ref=sr_1_
> >> 2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408889271&sr=1-2&keywords=septima+clark>
> >>
> >> I have written a piece on her as well and will send it this
> afternoon.
> >>
> >>
> >> I think the book We Make the Road by Walking: A dialogue
> between Myles
> >> Horton and Paulo Freire
> >> is one of the best books on both these leaders.
> >>
> >> More Later,
> >> Robert Lake
> >>
> >>
> >> I will send more this afternoon.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 9:31 AM, Andy Blunden
> <ablunden@mira.net <javascript:;> <mailto:
> >> ablunden@mira.net <javascript:;>>> wrote:
> >>
> >> Does anyone on this list know about the Highlander Center, what
> >> used to be called the Highlander Folk School?
> >> The people there are very helpful, but they're also rushed off
> >> their feet (like everyone, I guess) and if there were any other
> >> sources of information about it, that would be helpful. I'm
> >> particularly interested if anyone is familiar with what
> they were
> >> doing in the 1950s and 60s.
> >>
> >> Andy
> >> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> ------------
> >> *Andy Blunden*
> >> http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
> <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
> >> <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> *Robert Lake Ed.D.
> >> *Associate Professor
> >> Social Foundations of Education
> >> Dept. of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
> >> Georgia Southern University
> >> Secretary/Treasurer-AERA- Paulo Freire Special Interest Group
> >> P. O. Box 8144
> >> Phone: (912) 478-0355
> >> Fax: (912) 478-5382
> >> Statesboro, GA 30460
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
>
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