Tennessee Voices, Episode 315: Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Allyn Maxfield-Steele, Highlander Center
Civil rights leaders including Rosa Parks learned how to become effective organizers and advocates because of the training they received at the Highlander Research and Education Center.
Since 1932, the Highlander Center has been a place for grassroots organizing and building movements around social justice issues in the South and Appalachia.
The organization celebrates its 90th anniversary in an in-person and virtual event from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2.
On this episode of the Tennessee Voices video podcast, Highlander co-executive directors Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Allyn Maxfield-Steele talked about the New Market, Tennessee-based group's origin story, contending with critics who accused the organization of being communist and how achieving equality in America is an ongoing struggle.
Woodard Henderson is the first Black woman to lead Highlander and she said that legacy comes with an epic responsibility.
The two leaders talked about creating multi-ideological spaces where people are transformed, where there is no demonization and where the forcible exclusion of "the other" comes to an end.
They were in Raleigh, North Carolina at the time we recorded this interview for Farm Aid.
More:Highlander Center celebrates 90 years of strengthening Southern freedom movements | Opinion
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The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.
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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Tweet to him at @davidplazas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Voices: Highlander Center celebrates its 90th anniversary
