While the building and printing industries flourished in pre-Civil War Columbus, manufacturing languished. The manufacturing base grew and diversified from 1820 to 1850. Few unions emerged, and those that did seldom lasted long. During the Civil War business and manufacturing increased to serve the camps and prisons established in Columbus. When…

In the early 1940s the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) created its Committee to Abolish Racial Discrimination (CARD), whose members were pioneers in the attempt within the U.S. labor movement to overcome the divisiveness of racial discrimination. Although the CIO's racial policies were a significant advancement over those of the…

In the early 1950s, Highlander Folk School administered a workers' education program for the United Packinghouse Workers of America. The program ended because it threatened the power of certain union leaders, raising issues for the ways popular educators can work within institutions to transform and democratize them. (SK)

Discusses the history of the American Vocational Association in terms of its relationship to organized labor as both promoted the rights and welfare of the working class. (CH)

Traces the history of the Harry Lasker Library at the Highlander Research and Education Center near Knoxville, Tennessee, from the first book donations in 1933 to its revitalization in the mid-1990s. Discusses the role of the library as a resource center supporting nonformal education for social activism and the contributions of librarians Hilda…

Discusses Tennessee's Highlander Folk School. Reports that the school helped organize labor unions and played a role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. Explains that Highlander sought to bring about southern integration. Argues that successful civic education draws out the experiences and interests of participants and nurtures respect and…

Waves of activity in British workers' education include (1) initiation (1899-1920), with the establishment of the Workers' Education Association; (2) consolidation (1920-1940), with the formation of the National Council of Labour Colleges; (3) growth (1940-1964); (4) increased union training (1964-1979); and (5) current attempts to broaden the…

A history of Brookwood Labor College, an educational pioneer that engaged in practices and solved problems that have become widespread in higher education, is presented. It served adult and nontraditional students, and also proved that a liberal arts education provides vocational training, and that quality means more than survival. (MLW)

The mission of the Highlander Folk School (Tennessee), which flourished between 1932 and 1961, was intimately intertwined with the labor movement of the 1930s and 1940s and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Highlander began as an Appalachian community school seeking to understand the issues and problems of the community it served.…

This book contains five essays that recount the story of Britain's Workers' Educational Association (WEA) in particular and adult education in general in Cornwall since 1919. "An Idea Moves West: The Days before 1919" (Bernard Deacon) discusses the birth of the movement. The problems of chronically high unemployment, low wages, and…

Traces the birth, development, and achievements of the Highlander Folk School and the role played by its main founder, Myles Norton. The school was active in challenging worker and racial oppression through educating the poor and working class, playing a critical role in the labor movement of the 1930s. (CJS)

As a leader of social change in the South, Myles Horton (1) unionized southern textile workers and coal miners and advanced civil rights through his Highlander school; (2) conducted Highlander workshops for black leaders; (3) first popularized the song "We Shall Overcome"; and (4) initiated Citizenship Schools to help blacks register to…

This collection of scholarly essays marks the centenary of the Workers' Educational Association (WEA), the largest voluntary provider of adult education in the United Kingdom. The chapters are as follows: "Introduction" (Roberts); "The WEA The Foundation and the Founder" (Jennings); "Battersea and the Formation of the…

The 19 papers in this conference report examine the formative period of the field of adult education, the development of workers' education, and the interrelationships of the two fields. The four papers in Section I, on defining adult education are: "Challenging the System: The Adult Education Movement and the Educational Bureaucracy of the…

In 1932, Myles Horton founded the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. Horton created an adult education center dedicated to helping groups of primarily poor and uneducated people strive together to solve their social, economic, and political problems and conflicts by mining their own experiences and awareness. In this book, Horton…