[Xmca-l] Re: The Highlander Center in Tennessee
mike cole
lchcmike@gmail.com
Sat Aug 30 07:31:49 PDT 2014
Your idea sounds like a real good idea to me, Andy- I am pretty sure
there are others around XMCA with interesting connections to
Highlander. The topic is certainly relevant to discussions of
poverty and education, and a lot more of interest to this list.
mike
On Fri, Aug 29, 2014 at 6:10 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
> 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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