75th Anniversary Celebration
Speakers for the Opening Plenary
Saturday, 9/1/07
10:00 a.m.
Helen Lewis
Community Educator and Writer
Founder of Appalachian Studies
Morganton, GA
Helen Matthews Lewis -Sociologist-community educator-writer- semi-retired Former professor of sociology and anthropology and staff member of Highlander Research and Education Center, author of books and articles on Appalachian issues and community development. Currently is living in North Georgia writing and continues part-time teaching and consulting.
Hollis Watkins
Civil Rights Movement Activist
Founder, Southern Echo
Jackson, MS
Hollis Watkins, founder and president of Southern Echo, has more than 45 years of human/civil rights work experience. He is the youngest of 12 children born of sharecroppers from rural Missisippi. Hollis is a board member of Highlander where his relationship with the institution began in the early 60s.
Stewart Acuff
Director of Organizing
AFL-CIO, American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations
Washington DC
Stewart Acuff is Director of Organizing for the AFL-CIO, where he coordinates strategies to help working men and women join and form unions across the federation's 53 member unions. He has been a community organizer and union organizer for 30 years, except for a brief stint as a truck driver. He has written articles for the Atlanta Constitution, Labor Research Review, In These Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy and Focus Magazine, Labor Studies Journal, New Labor Forum and several Georgia newspapers. He also has written essays in Which Way for Organized Labor? (edited by Bruce Nissen) and Organizing for Justice in Our Communities (edited by Immanuel Ness and Stuart Eimer).
Pancho Arguelles
Popular Educator
Colectivo Flatlander
Houston, TX
Francisco Argüelles Paz y Puente (aka Pancho) started practicing popular education in 1983 in Chiapas as a rural teacher. He has organized and used popular education extensively in rural communities throughout Central America, Mexico and the US for the past 20 years. Lives in Houston with his wife Christine and his children Antonio and Maria.
Organization: Colectivo Flatlander de Educación Popular and Team Member of INDELI, Highlander Center
Francisco Argüelles Paz y Puente (alias Pancho) comenzó a practicar educación popular en Chiapas en 1983 como maestro rural. Durante los últimos 20 años ha organizado y utilizado la educación popular en comunidades rurales en Centro América, México y los Estados Unidos. Vive en Houston con su esposa Cristina y sus hijos Antonio y Maria.
Organización: Colectivo Flatlander de Educación Popular y es parte del equipo de INDELI, del Centro Highlander.
Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou
Senior Community Minister
Judson Memorial Church
New York City
Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou serves as Senior Community Minister at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. He authored the critically acclaimed urbansouls and is an Associate Fellow in Religion and Justice at the Institute for Policy Studies, the nation's oldest multi-issue progressive think tank in Washington, D.C. He was the founding National Coordinator of Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq and founding Executive Director of the Interfaith Worker Justice Center of New Orleans. As a student-activist at Knoxville College he was trained in non-violent direct action at the Highlander Center.
Elandria Williams
Seeds of Fire, Education Team
Highlander Center
Powell, TN
Elandria Williams is on the Education Team for the Highlander Research and Education Center as an Intergenerational Organizer working with the Seeds of Fire Youth and Young Adult Program and our new Organizing and Leadership Institute. She is an African American and Indigenous differently-abled young adult and a native of Knoxville (Powell), TN whose roots are all over Florida, Mississippi and Alabama. Before coming to the Highlander Research and Education Center, she was involved in popular education and organizing around anti-oppression, anti-racism, nonviolence, education reform, the prison military industrial complex both in communities of faith and in the larger world.
Conrad Honicker
JumpStart Youth Organizer
GLSEN Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network
Knoxville, TN
Conrad Honicker, 16, is an adventurous, artistic, and activism-oriented young person. His work in the LGBT community started when he was 14 in Knoxville's downtown Krutch Park where he led and organized the Holding Hands demonstration. Since then Conrad has started the first Gay Straight Alliance in Knox County and this past spring was awarded the Seed of Change award by Community Shares. Conrad pursues safe climates for all youth and people alike, crediting the Highlander Center for introducing him and having him grow up in social justice.
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