November 2, 2005
With the passing of Rosa Parks, the news
has been filled with the “awe” of this tiny person, to see her standing beside
others, who, one day, decided she had had enough of being discriminated against
by white people and decided to rebel.
This is the picture of spontaneous
rebellion painted of this “little woman” who now lies
in estate, the first woman ever, in our nation’s capital, eulogized by the
likes of Condoleeza Rice as her hero and mentor.
But is this the real picture or is this
just the picture painted for us by the media? Let’s take a look. The following
is from an article found in the San Jose Mercury, January 16, 2000, which
states, in part:
"Before refusing to give up her bus
seat, Parks had spent 12 years helping lead the local NAACP chapter, along with
union activist E.D. Minon,
from the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, teachers from the local Negro
college and a variety of ordinary members of Montgomery's African -American
community.
"The summer before, (her famous
action on a bus) Parks had attended a 10 day training session at Tennessee's
labor and civil rights organizing school, the Highlander Center, where she'd
met an older generation of civil rights activists and discussed the Supreme
Court decision banning 'separate but equal schools'.......... In short, Parks
didn't make a spur-of-the-moment decision. Rosa Parks didn't single-handedly
give birth to the civil rights efforts..... In contemporary myth, Parks decides
to act almost on a whim; she's a virgin to politics, a holy innocent for whom
an inspired moment suddenly arrived. Parks' real story conveys a far more
empowering moral. She begins with seemingly modest steps. She goes to a meeting
and then another......Had she and other given up after
her 10th or 11th year of commitment, we might never have heard of Montgomery.........."
Oh dear, this isn’t quite the picture
being so carefully painted for us by the media today, is it? Is this really
true? Let’s take a trip to the Highlander
Research and Education Center, aka, the Highlander
Folk School, see what this “organizing school”, if it really is, is all about.
The following is from the Highlander Center website:
There comes a moment, a turn, when
people stop thinking about what has happened to them, and start thinking about
what they can make happen.
This old truism of community organizing
stands, as well as anything, for the principles that underlie the 60-year-old
Highlander Center, which, to the extent that such a complex program can be
boiled down to a single sentence, serves as a school for grassroots community
organizers in the Appalachian and Southern states.
Founded in 1932 by Myles Horton and a
group of supporters as the Highlander Folk School, a "school for
adults," where people of like spirit could meet, share
their experiences and learn from each other, the center has continued with
essentially little change in its basic principles.
Such famous organizers as Martin Luther
King came there (earning the school some notoriety among local segregationists,
who considered the institution "communistic"); so did Rosa Parks, who
contrary to the myth that her leadership of the Montgomery, Ala., bus strike
was merely the act of a tired woman who would not be moved, was trained here
before the strike. And, in more modern times, many well-known Appalachian
organizers, like Becky Simpson of the Cranks Creek Survival Center, have won
fellowships here to share and to learn.
Horton organized Highlander, then in the
town of Monteagle, Tenn., originally to train
Southern union organizers. Its primary focus moved to desegregation in the
'50s, and the resulting controversy inspired state officials to take legal
action to yank its charter as a school in 1960. Unbowed, Horton moved the
institution to Knoxville's inner city, and then, about two decades ago, to its
current setting on 110 beautiful acres of hilltop meadow with a view of the
Great Smoky Mountains, about 20 miles out into the countryside east of
Knoxville.
A search on Myles Horton turns up the
following:
“The Highlander Center in
Tennessee was started in 1932 by Myles Horton and James Dombrowski,
both members of the Communist Party. According to a book, 'Speak Now', a
left-wing history of the civil rights movement, the original purpose was to
train communist activists on how to promote textile strikes, hold protest
marches, picket lines and learn 'socialist songs'. The Textile Workers Union
was completely controlled by the Communist Party.....'Speak Now', says that
Parks attended summer training at the Highlander Folk School in 1955, 1956 and
1957. She is pictured with Martin Luther King sitting on the front row in a
Highlander training class on September 2, 1957.” [source:
Christian News; May 14, 2001; letter of Ed Toner, New Jersey]
In the book, Martin Luther King, The Man
Behind the Myth, (Des Griffin, Emmisary
Publications; Clackamas, Oregon) the following is written (page 14, 15 and 16):
Mrs.
Parks had been well prepared for her adventure by a recent educational
experience that included a course at an institution called Highlander Folk
School, in Monteagle, Tennessee.
. .
. Highlander Folk School was opened in 1954 [note this date differs here from
other sources. I do not know whether it is a typo or error here or whether the
school may have existed elsewhere or by another name prior to that] by Myles
Horton and Dr. James A Dombrowski. These two fine,
upstanding gentlemen had, just months earlier, been run out of Mena, Arkansas, for running a communist front called
Commonwealth College. The college was convicted under the laws of Arkansas of
displaying the hammer and sicle and openly teaching
communism. The state levied a $2,500 fine. When the college couldn't pay the
fine, the state took over the property, sold it at public auction and used the
money to cover the costs.
. .
. A detailed communist plot to use Commonwealth College (later Highlander Folk
School) as an instrument of communist propaganda, was
outlined in a secret report on communism reprinted by the House Committee on
Un-American Activities. On April 27, 1947, the U.S. Attorney General cited
Commonwealth College as a communist front (New York Times, April 28, 1949)
And what is available to teachers in
classroom regarding Rosa Parks? What about the following, taken from the
Highlander Folk School website:
Mighty Times: The Legacy
of Rosa Parks
"You Can't Padlock
the Ideas": The Highlander Folk School
A pivotal
episode in Rosa Parks' life was her two-week stay at the Highlander Folk School
in Monteagle, Tennessee.
While
the school initially focused on justice for workers in the South, racial
segregation became the pervading issue for the school for several decades
beginning in the early 1940s.
Many
civil rights activists passed through Highlander's grounds, including Rosa
Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Stokely
Carmichael.
Mrs.
Parks attended Highlander only months before she stood up to segregation on a
Montgomery bus in December 1955. It was at Highlander where she learned about
nonviolent protest and the teachings of Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Now
located in New Market, Tenn., the school is still training activists from all
over the world, but their current focus is on poverty in Appalachia.
ACTIVITY
1. Compile a more
detailed history of Highlander by visiting the school's website. Create
handouts for the classroom.
2. After students have read about Highlander's
history, ask the following questions.
What was the
initial purpose of the Highlander Folk School?
How
did the school become involved with the Civil Rights Movement? What
philosophies did the school advocate that were embraced by civil rights
leaders?
When
did Rosa Parks attend the Highlander School and what was she involved in that
inspired her to attend? How did Mrs. Parks utilize her Highlander School
training? How does the fact that she was a trained activist dispel the common
perception that she was a tired, working woman who just wanted to sit down?
What was
Highlander accused of in the 1950's that brought them so much negative press?
Why was this such a negative label? What was the
result of the attack? Besides training activists for the Civil Rights Movement,
what other types of activist campaigns did the Highlander School support and
train leaders for? What are issues that are currently of concern to the
Highlander School? If you could attend a school that would help you fight for
an issue that you feel strongly about, what would that issue be? What would you
want to learn from such a school?
All of this speaks for itself. We should
be careful who we put on pedestals.
Beware of false prophets, who come to
you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ― Matthew 7:15
Thou shall have no other gods before
Me. ― Exodus 20:3 (Ten Commandments)
I wish to give thanks to Mary Thompson,
trusted friend, for her major contribution to this article.
© 2005 Lynn M. Stuter - All Rights
Reserved