Stills from the Highlander Videos |
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Two short videos of Highlander’s 25th anniversary gathering in 1957 have recently been put online by the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia as part of a collection entitled “Integrated in All Respects: Ed Friend’s Highlander Folk School Films and the Politics of Segregation.”
The videos include footage of Rosa Parks, Myles Horton, Pete Seeger, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others at the gathering, as well as shots of the integrated group eating, dancing, and swimming together. They were taken by a photographer named Ed Friend who was sent to the anniversary celebration by the Georgia Commission on Education, a state committee founded to oppose integration. Friend did not reveal his connection to the Commission at the gathering, claiming instead to be a freelance journalist writing a story about Highlander.
Friend also took pictures of the anniversary that later appeared with stills from the videos in a newspaper-size broadside published by the Commission with the headline “Highlander Folk School – Communist Training School, Monteagle, TN.” Thousands of copies of this document were distributed throughout the South in an attempt to discredit Highlander and the Civil Rights Movement.
The videos, a PDF copy of the broadside, and related materials are available at http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/highlander. Thanks to the Richard Russell Library and its sponsors for making this material available.
Related Links
- Dr. King’s speech at Highlander’s 25th anniversary is available at www.test.highlandercenter.org/photo-gallery-mlk-hfs25th.asp.
- The Richard B. Russell Library at UGA also sponsored an exhibit and program series about Highlander this fall. For a brief write up and a link to more information, visit http://viewfromthehill.org/?p=117.