Myles Horton was born in Savannah, Tennessee. He was active at the Highlander Center from its founding in 1932 until his death in 1990. Herbert and Judith Kohl have taught and written on the subjects of educational change and economic justice for more than 3 decades. Together they won the National Book Award for A View from the Oak.
"Horton's story is an entire American Studies sequence in political courage."--The New York Times
Grandson of an illiterate ``mountain man'' and son of a poor Tennessee farmer, Horton worked his way through college and university studies and, after becoming a labor union organizer, founded and directed the Tennessee-based Highlander Folk School (now the Highlander Research and Education Center), with the missions to mobilize voter registration among blacks, further the cause of unions and support civil rights. In this ``autobiography'' coauthored with the Kohls ( View from the Oak ), Horton describes the struggle to keep Highlander going despite accusations of its Communist orientation, and recalls the people (Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Ralph Abernathy, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Saul Alinsky, Eleanor Roosevelt) and movements that developed or gained inspiration there. A believer in freedom not only of speech but of individual thought, Horton stresses that he has never cast his lot with Communism but tried to provide opportunities for oppressed people to advance themselves. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)
"Horton's story is an entire American Studies sequence in political courage."--The New York Times
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