 November
28 - Highlander School - TN |
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The
Freedom Bus Riders celebrated Thanksgiving at the Highlander
Folk School. In addition to the wonderful dinner,
we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of east Tennessee.
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- Highlander
has played an important role in movements for social change
throughout this century.
- Highlander
had been an important part in building the civil rights
movement. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and many other
important leaders attended workshops and strategy sessions.
- Highlander
also played a key role as an education and training center
for the industrial union movement in the 30's.
- Highlander
has supported (and continues to support) many local struggles
for justice in the Appalachian region.
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Like
generations of leaders before us, Freedom Bus riders sat
in Highlander's rocking chairs.
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Susan
Williams from Highlander and Tierreny Morrison from the Freedom
Bus share lessons and experiences of fighting for justice. |
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Susan
Williams shared, "Highlander helps gather people who
are working in struggles to learn from each other. Highlander
gathers people and gives them a chance to talk to each other
about what they are doing, how they're doing it, what's hard,
and to make links, and share with people back home."
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Highlander
is currently working on programs around economic justice
and democratic participation including:
- Programs
to encourage youth leadership and youth led organizations.
- Working
with recent immigrants to organize.
- Linking
people across racial barriers.
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Web Links
Highlander
Center for Research and Training
Daily
Prayer for the New Freedom Bus Tour
The Rev.
Noelle Damico, Catalyst, School of Theology, University
of the Poor
Thursday, November 28
Gathered in this
place, it is impossible to forget the great cloud of witnesses
who have come before us. They surround us with their hope,
their urgency, their encouragement. We remember the union
leaders whose struggle for fair wages, safe workplaces, and
decent hours we continue today. We remember Bob Moses and
Ella Baker and Rosa Parks whose stalwart courage and belief
in community action propelled the civil rights movement. We
remember the value the Highlander Center has always placed
on the education and empowerment of young people. So today
it is fitting to celebrate Thanksgiving here, for we are grateful.
And we nourish ourselves on the history of this Other America,
too often obscured, caricatured or forgotten by textbooks.
We, who are also obscured, caricatured, and forgotten, gather
with these saints, both living and dead, in dignity and power,
with resilience and imagination, to hope and prepare for an
America with liberty and justice for all. Amen.
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About
the Campaign 
