A historical marker on Hwy. 41 in Grundy County, Tennessee, marks the turnoff to the former site of Highlander Folk School, which trained scores of labor and civil rights activists. (Photo by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
More than 60 years after the state of Tennessee confiscated its land on trumped-up charges, the Highlander Research and Education Center will once again own land in Grundy County. The acquisition includes 8.5 of the then-named Highlander Folk School’s original 200 acres, including the library where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke.
“It’s righting a historic wrong, and it’s correcting something that never should have occurred,” says Learotha Williams, a Tennessee State University professor and historian who has supported Highlander’s bid to regain their land. “I think this will introduce a new generation of young people to the type of work [Highlander does].”
Highlander Folk School, training ground for civil rights leaders, fights to regain land
Highlander purchased the land just a few months after it was sold to someone else — and after a public dispute over that sale made headlines. The announcement of Highlander’s purchase does not include plans for the site, only that Highlander will work with MASS Design Group, the architectural firm that designed the National Memorial for Peace and Justice honoring victims of lynching in Montgomery, Alabama.
“This is an historic moment for Highlander, the social movements we accompany, and the people of this region,” said co-executive director of Highlander Salimah Muhammad in a press release. (Both parties said that their statements in the press release would be the only comments on the sale and did not talk to a reporter.)
Selling and buying and fighting
From 2014 to 2019, the nonprofit Tennessee Preservation Trust (TPT) purchased several parcels of land on Old Highlander Lane in Monteagle with the intent to preserve what remained of the civil rights and union training ground. Under the leadership of then-board chair David Currey, a Nashville historian, the organization restored the library building. But as the nonprofit’s administration crumbled behind the scenes and the pandemic stalled ambitious plans, further redevelopment of the site stopped.
From the beginning, Highlander told TPT they would be open to purchasing the land when they had funds to do so. In 2019, Highlander co-executive director Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele worked on a plan to acquire the site but couldn’t get a commitment from Currey. But in 2022, the relationship publicly soured after TPT nominated the library for the National Register of Historic Places without notifying Highlander. The latter accused the preservation group of racism and said they attempted to buy the site; TPT seethed over the accusations and said they never received a serious offer. Both sides ceased communication.
In December 2023, without notifying Highlander, the TPT board voted to approve a sale of the land for $600,000 to Todd Mayo, the owner of an underground concert venue in Grundy County, The Caverns. Infuriated, Highlander made a counteroffer of $800,000 in June. The board turned it down. Despite questions about possible conflicts of interest in the sale, the Tennessee Attorney General’s office approved the transfer. (Per state law, the AG’s office must approve any sale by a nonprofit of substantial assets.) According to property records, Mayo, via a land trust, closed the sale on September 18.
A change in tone
As of late summer, tensions between TPT and Highlander were high, but tempers seem to have cooled off with the weather. Vociferously opposed to Highlander owning the land earlier this year, TPT board chair Phil Thomason says he supports the sale now that additional land use restrictions have been placed on the site.
“TPT is pleased that [Highlander] plans to further preserve and protect the library building through granting a preservation easement to be owned and administered by TPT,” Thomason said in the release.
Mayo said he’s excited about returning the land to its original owners.
“Highlander, in John Lewis’s words, gave the Civil Rights Movement ‘the tools, the tactics, and the training to redeem the soul of America’,” Mayo says. “ I’m … optimistic that the site will become, in time, a worldwide destination along the Civil Rights Trail and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.”
Highlander did not provide detailed information on terms of the sale or whether the purchase price was the same as its original $800,000 offer, only noting that more details would be released in the coming months.
Highlander stated in the press release that over the next 18 months, it plans to “partner with Indigenous/First Nations partners, local residents, community groups, Civil Rights veterans and social movement historians in a participatory design process to develop a vision and strategic plan for the site … [and] to ensure that the people of Grundy County benefit.” Site plans will be drawn up after that process.
Whatever the plans turn out to be, Williams says people will celebrate.
“Usually we don’t win these types of battles,” Williams says. “Highlander’s return [to Monteagle] is a moment of great joy. But it also should be a moment that inspires us to be better human beings.”
This story is republished from the Tennessee Lookout, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.