by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

The Highlander Folk School site in Monteagle, owned by the Tennessee Preservation Trust (TPT), is being sold. On a June 28 vote, the TPT board weighed the merits of two bidders, the Highlander Research and Education Center and Caverns owner Todd Mayo, choosing Mayo. Due to a complex set of circumstances, the TPT board may revote the decision. The Highlander Center and Mayo agreed to talk with the Messenger about their vision for the property.

The Highlander Folk School opened in the Summerfield community of Monteagle in 1932 to educate the region’s miners and help them organize to win better wages and working conditions. In the 1950s Highlander took up the cause of civil rights, schooling people throughout the southeast in the literacy skills needed to vote and in Monteagle schooling up and coming civil rights leaders in strategies for non-violent civil disobedience. A photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. at a workshop led to Highlander being targeted as a communist training school. In 1961 the state revoked the school’s charter, confiscated the 200-acre site and buildings, and sold the property at auction.

“What they did, the Appalachian coal miners and civil rights leaders is tied to the best parts of our history,” Mayo said. “I want to protect and preserve that history.” The property offered for sale by TPT includes 10-11 acres of the original site, the Highlander Folk School library building, a dilapidated cabin, and two contemporary homes currently being rented. The Highlander Center formed the day after confiscation of the folk school site, reopened in Knoxville and later moved to New Market to escape racial harassment. “We want to preserve our story and our legacy and make sure any museum or monument on that land accurately portrays the history and the work we’ve been a part of,” said Evelyn Lynn, Highlander Center Special Projects Organizer.

Expanding on his vision, Mayo said, “I want to bring school kids here to be inspired by what happened, for every kid in the state of Tennessee to go on a field trip to Highlander.” He envisions tours and exhibits at the site drawing tourists and using the revenue to fund the field trip program.

The Center wants to see “a museum that tells the real story of the movements that grew out of and were connected to the school,” Lynn said pointing to Highlander’s work promoting civil rights and schooling coalminers in organizing. “These are stories about how regular folks have brilliance and come up with solutions that can change the course of history.”

“Highlander should be on the Tennessee Civil Rights Trail and the National Civil Rights Trail,” Mayo insisted. “I want Highlander to be for the people of Grundy County and to celebrate them and to be part of their history.” Mayo hopes to video record local people with a connection to Highlander’s history with stories to tell.

Committed to “participatory design,” Lynn said the Center’s hopes for historic Highlander include traditional folk-school programming, “to bring people together to learn and share skills, everything from crafts, to car repair, to music.” Lynn pointed out folk-school programming would also draw tourists and bring in tourist dollars, putting money in the pockets of the local people teaching the classes.

Lynn stressed the historic role of music in Highlanders heritage and the school’s link to the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.” Asked if he had plans for a music venue at the historic Highlander site, Mayo replied, “No way.” “Nor am I going to build tiny homes,” he added dispelling another rumor.

Is the sale of the original Highlander site a competition between Mayo and the Center? Should it be?

A mutual friend introduced Mayo and historic preservationist David Currey who pulled together funders for TPT’s purchase of the site. Inspired by Currey’s passion, Mayo donated money to finance restoration of the library and put Currey in contact with a local contractor to do the work. Unfortunately, contention marred the relationship between the Center and Currey.

In early December 2023, the Center expressed an interest in purchasing historic Highlander, making a $1.5 million offer. According to Lynn, TPT Board Chair Phil Thomason told the Center, “We’re not contemplating further changes.” The Center learned through an anonymous source soon afterwards TPT asked Mayo if he wanted to purchase the property.

Mayo’s understanding was TPT was selling the property to satisfy creditors. Legalities required the state attorney general to review and approve the sale. Among the criteria the attorney general required was that TPT show they sought multiple bids or had an appraisal done. In late May, Lynn said, Thomason contacted the Center and invited them to bid on the property.

With less than three weeks to submit a purchase offer, the Center scrambled to satisfy the requirements—proof of funding, letters of support, and a detailed architectural conservation plan for the site, an undertaking that normally takes months. The purchase offer stressed the Center’s willingness to negotiate all terms and welcomed collaborating with TPT on the historic Highlander preservation effort. The Center’s bid was $200,000 higher than Mayo’s.

On July 8 TPT’s attorney contacted the Center. TPT rejected their offer. The reasons: TPT preferred staying with the current contract with Mayo to expedite the process; Mayo had already acquired conservation easements on the property; and Mayo had agreed to future partnerships with TPT. Dismayed by the news, especially since the Center had also stressed partnering with TPT, the Center subsequently learned the board never saw their 89-page proposal, only a brief summary of their offer, and when presenting the summary, Thomason questioned the Center’s ability to pay.

Lynn said the proof of funding submitted clearly demonstrated the Center’s financial viability. In retrospect, she questions the sincerity of TPT’s invitation to submit. Although the Center was aware of the attorney generals’ multiple-bidders requirement, Lynn insisted, “We hoped the invitation was authentic. Don’t invite the original organization whose land was stolen by segregationists to have us running around on a fool’s errand. It adds insult to injury.”

Word has gotten back to the Center that having learned they never saw the Center’s full proposal, some TPT board member want to revote the decision.

“It’s not about Todd Mayo. It’s not about 100 percent ownership,” Lynn said. “We want a seat at the table. We want to make sure those who fought and died for the place are respected.”

“I 100 percent believe the New Market folks should have a voice,” Mayo said. “The Highlander Center is doing the work of social justice. What they started in the 1930s is awesome. It should be protected and honored and that can raise awareness and benefit what they’re doing now. If they get it and want to meet with me, I’m good with that. I want to fight forward, not back.”

Mayo hopes the past contention between Currey and the Center can be mediated.

“We’re willing to put that behind us and go forward,” Lynn said. “If we own it, we want to partner with Mayo, and if he owns it, we want to partner with him.” Looking to economics, having two Highlanders confused donors, she pointed out.

Mayo and the Center were on the verge of setting a date to meet, but Mayo contacted them August 16 and wanted to postpone. “It’s awkward,” he said, citing the uncertainty. “There’s no reason to meet about it, until there’s a reason to meet.”

“We’ve heard different things about Todd,” Lynn said, “but most of it’s been good. Most people believe he wants to do good things. We’re trying to figure out a way to make this work that doesn’t cause conflict.” The Center has already initiated grassroots level conversations with local people in Grundy County. “We’re going to be there regardless of how this turns out,” she insisted. “How do we get Todd to talk to us?”

Both TPT and David Currey declined to talk with the Messenger for this story.