Via @TNLookout: Tennessee confiscated land from the civil rights training center in 1961. A proposed sale of some of it to a for-profit entity has infuriated Highlander leaders, whose offer to buy it was rejected. https://t.co/FdCnaW9R4O
🧵ICYMI: I wrote a long article about the fight over the ownership of (what's left of) the original Highlander Folk School site up on Monteagle Mountain for @TNLookout. https://t.co/ZbR6c5l2eP
I also had so much information left over that I wrote a mini-essay about historic preservation to go with reporting outtakes that raise even more questions about TPT. https://t.co/IMJ5MjqV9L
🧵ICYMI: I wrote a long article about the fight over the ownership of (what's left of) the original Highlander Folk School site up on Monteagle Mountain for @TNLookout. https://t.co/ZbR6c5l2eP
Anyway, I spent A LOT of time reporting this and talking to a lot of sources and calling even more people who wouldn't talk. It's a juicy story that raises a lot of questions about the future of the land. Please read it! https://t.co/ZbR6c5l2eP
But the real story isn't just a fight between two non-profits — it's a fight over the difference between historic preservation and activism. Between polite white liberalism and activism that fights to change things.
Over the past decade the relationship between the two groups fell apart. TPT decided last winter to sell the lots — without telling Highlander. When they found out this spring, they offered $200k more, in cash. TPT still said no.
Highlander didn't have the funds to contribute to the purchases at the time, but they stayed in semi-communication with TPT about maybe one day getting the land back.
In 2013, the Nashville-based historic preservation group, Tennessee Preservation Trust (TPT) announced they were going to raise money and buy up a lot of the original sites to save the buildings that were left, including the historic library, where MLK famously spoke.
In the 60s, the state confiscated @HighlanderCtr's 200 acres of land on false charges and sold off parcels. Highlander moved to East TN and continued fighting the fight.
Accusations of bad faith dealing, sweetheart deals and the role race plays in historic preservation: @carigervin goes deep to profile a dispute over the property formerly home to the civil rights training center, the Highlander Folk School.
https://t.co/JYctWbCYIL