Stanford
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute

Memo, “Leadership Training Program and Citizenship Schools”

Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)

Date: December 1, 1960 to January 31, 1961?

Location: Atlanta, Ga.?

Genre: Letter

Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views

Details

At the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) annual meeting in October 1960, executive director Wyatt Tee Walker suggested that SCLC create a Citizenship Education program, similar to the one that had been at Tennessee’s Highlander Folk School since 1956.1 Soon after the meeting, King and Highlander director Myles Horton agreed that SCLC would take over the citizenship program in February 1961 due to the fact that Highlander’s charter had been revoked.2 The following memo, likely intended for SCLC affiliate organizations, outlines the structure of the new program and invites participants to trainings beginning in March 1961.3

To:
From: Southern Christian Leadership Conference National Office
Subject: Leadership Training Program and Citizenship Schools

  1. A study has been completed that documents the need for the training of new leadership in the south to implement the program of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference adopted at Shreveport, Louisiana in October, 1960. In order that the Negro in all walks of life may achieve and enjoy the full benefits of citizenship it has been found necessary that full understanding through training be placed at his disposal. The use of the ballot effectively requires a systematic knowledge of politics. To safeguard civil rights necessitates understanding government and those who control it. To protect and improve jobs, wages, working conditions, business opportunities, the use of borrowed money demands an understanding of the economics of living. To protect civil, public and private rights, a knowledge of common and statutory law is required. To break down the barriers of segregation, to destroy the institutions of prejudice, to successfully apply mass direct action through picketing and boycotting a knowledge of these techniques is desirable. To effect the social change by protest necessary to achieve full citizenship a full understanding of nonviolence and its application must be learned.

  2. Through Myles Horton and Septima Clark, professional educators, a method to train individuals for these purposes was developed and tested for a period exceeding five years. This program was designed to equip persons for citizenship starting with the teaching of reading and writing in order to become registered to vote. The addition and inclusion of other areas of training took place as the need presented itself. The complete success of this training method developed in the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Huntsville, Alabama projects has met fully and successfully the objectives and requirements.4 It is the good fortune of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to have been offered the use of this educational program in the development of its activities in social action.

  3. SCLC has accepted the invitation to use this educational plan and considers its unique advantage is in filling the need for developing new leadership as teachers and supervisors and providing the broad educational base for the population at large through the establishment of Citizenship Schools conducted by these new leaders throughout the South.

       LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM

  1. At Highlander Folk School, Monteagle, Tennessee, there is provided a training facility which affords comfortable living quarters, excellent food and ample classroom space. There is a fresh water lake and beautiful scenic views from the mountain top on which the school is located. Here will be provided an interracial living and learning experience. It will be the duty of the teacher, who will have learned the methods of teaching, the subject matter to be taught and how to set up and operate these Citizenship Schools to return to his locality and extablish a Citizenship School. Admission will be open to all. The training of teachers will include use of simplified methods, visual aids, proper materials to use and how to order them in proper quantities. Participants will be taught how to operate tape recorders, record players, film and slide projectors, etc.

    Demonstrations of actual teaching situations will enable the teacher-trainee to solve real problems. Available are refresher courses which the teacher may attend for advanced training. Here problems encountered by the new teacher may be brought for discussion and analysis leading to solution.

    CITIZENSHIP SCHOOL

    For the training of adults in equipping them for the role of full citizenship. Reference: see attached report (Citizenship Training School Program)5

    ROLE OF THE AFFILIATE

    The responsibility of the affiliate is to direct and control the operation of the Citizenship School so that it will properly implement the program of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the manner outlined above. (See: paragraphs A, B, and C)

    The affiliate will recruit teachers and supervisors as outlined on page six (6) of report: Citizenship Training School Program.6

    COSTS OF TRAINING PROGRAM

    Scholarships are available from Highlander to cover tuition, room and board while in training. This amounts to $8.00 per day. The cost of operating the local Citizenship School is $35.00 per month per class when classes meet eight (8) times per month.

    The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is negotiating with philanthropic foundations to provide funds for most of the educational program.7 Meetings are now in progress and there is every indication that sharp reductions in the cost to the affiliate of training leaders and operating schools will take place. However, it is necessary that this training program be established and operating in order that investors may observe the program in operation.

    The breadth and scope of this program, its construction and design, its purpose and intent will make possible for your organization and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strike at the heart of the problems standing in the way of the Negro becoming an American in the true sense. This program with your cooperation will represent the greatest single contribution to the establishment of the great Democratic ideal of this century.

    We urge your cooperation in the creation of new leaders and more informed citizens in our struggle for freedom and equality. Please direct all correspondence to Mrs. Dorothy F. Cotton, our newly appointed Educational Consultant.8

Yours very truly,
[signed] M. L. King Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.,
President

MLK:dc

1. Dorothy Cotton, “Minutes of annual board meeting,” 11 October 1960. In 1956 one of the first Citizenship Schools was conducted on Johns Island, South Carolina, by educator Septima Clark; her cousin, beautician Bernice Robinson; and activist Esau Jenkins. That same year, Clark began working at Highlander as director of workshops and began teaching citizenship classes. For more information on Jenkins and the Citizenship Schools, see note 1, King, “People in Action: Unknown Heroes,” 12 May 1962, p. 454 in this volume.

2. Under scrutiny for its affiliations with the civil rights and labor movements as well as with Communists and their sympathizers, Highlander’s charter was revoked by the State of Tennessee by 1960 for a host of reasons, including the unlawful sale of alcohol. After working its way through the local and state courts, Highlander’s appeal was refused by the U.S. Supreme Court in October 1961. Anticipating the outcome, Horton had chartered a new organization in August to seamlessly continue operating the adult education programs as the Highlander Research and Education Center, based in Knoxville, Tennessee. According to a New York Times article, some worried that King’s alliance with Highlander would jeopardize SCLC’s prestige among Southern white liberals and moderates. Responding to the concerns, Jim Wood, SCLC public relations director, said: “We find no reason not to cooperate with any organization that is interested in the development of full citizenship for Americans which cannot be proved to have conducted itself in a manner which is not American or patriotic” (Claude Sitton, “2 Groups in South Training Negroes,” New York Times, 23 February 1961; “Highlander School Plans New Center,” New York Times, 10 October 1961).

3. SCLC, Minutes, “First quarterly meeting of Administrative Committee,” 8 March–9 March 1961.

4. By December 1960 Highlander set up test schools and experimental teacher training workshops in Huntsville, Alabama, and Savannah, Georgia.

5. SCLC, “Citizenship school training program,” December 1960–January 1961.

6. Highlander Folk School, “Training leaders for citizenship schools,” 1961.

7. SCLC was later given a grant of $26,500 by the Field Foundation to begin the Leadership Training Program (Maxwell Hahn to Charles Miles Jones, 28 April 1961).

8. Cotton was promoted to educational consultant in December 1960 (James R. Wood to Septima Poinsette Clark, 23 December 1960). In September 1961, Andrew Young became administrator of SCLC’s Citizenship Education Program (see Young to King, 11 September 1961, pp. 279–281 in this volume).

Source: SCLCR-GAMK, Southern Christian Leadership Conference Records, 1954–1970, Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.