2006 Year End Appeal
by Pam McMichael, Director
In the last year since I was named director, I am often asked, "What is your vision for Highlander?"
It's a tough question, and an important one to talk about with friends like you whose ongoing generosity is crucial to our work to support grassroots organizing in the South and Appalachia. It's also an important question because our current work builds on such honored legacy, and because the needs of the work for justice call us all to do the very best we can.
The problems and fragmentations we face today are not quite the same as the stark divisions that marked the region and country when Highlander was one of a few places in the South where Black and white people could come together as equals. The divide-and-conquer strategies of the right wing and ruling elite are more subtly refined, but they still do not want us to find each other across our differences. Each time we do, however, and see our own lives as intrinsically connected to others, we help create a more formidable force for justice. I want Highlander to continue to be a place where people find each other and forge that kind of connection.
Highlander faces challenges in maintaining our long-standing relationships with communities with whom we have worked over the years, particularly African American and Appalachian communities, while also stretching ourselves to be there for new communities as the demographics in the South dramatically change. I want us to be able to hold and strengthen all those relationships and also help new and long-established communities connect with each other.
Some people say Highlander's job is to support organizing efforts, not start them, but I believe our role has always been to serve as a catalyst. We don't just support efforts as they develop, we serve as the yeast as well, helping to initiate new efforts based on intensive listening to people in motion and on their needs to move their work forward.
As I meet and talk with people who have had long relationships with Highlander, I hear respect and honor for what Highlander has meant to people struggling for justice against tremendous odds. I hope the young leaders who are coming through Highlander today will speak with the same appreciation twenty and thirty years down the road.
And I hope we always take risks in working on cutting-edge issues.
Earlier this month, our Board approved a strategic plan to guide Highlander's course of action for the next five years. Three highlights of our new plan include:
- Developing a new multi-racial leadership training and organizing institute with 30 people from 15 groups from the Deep South, Appalachia, and immigrant communities, with a majority of participants age 35 and younger. This institute will help groups develop stronger capacity to address their specific issues as well as strengthen their relationships, skills and analysis to connect people and issues across difficult divides to build a broad-based movement.
- Expanding our Young and Restless program to include a specific focus on activists and young leaders in their 20s who are making critical decisions about the direction of their lives.
- Restructuring staff to support the education demands of our work, enhance our external communications, and consolidate some of the operations teams which support the physical work of Highlander.
I would like to close by sharing three memorable snapshots of our work in the past few months.
- A 15 year old white gay youth from Tennessee who had recently organized his first action and a 65 year old African American civil rights leader who began his work as a teen in Mississippi in a meeting together at Highlander. They are part of a multi-racial, multi-cultural, inter-generational gathering to name tensions and opportunities, develop strategies and ideas, and draw strength from each other to move forward.
- Black, Latino and white people circling the workshop center room singing an Affrilachian song, "Climbing the Mountain." The singing was powerful and a healing balm for a group of people who, earlier that day, had been in painful exploration of issues in the South, including the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Artists and cultural workers from the Gulf Coast who hadn't been able to join us last year due to the hurricane were able to be with us this year, and now a year later, are still not home.
- Latino immigrants graduating from INDELI, a two year organizing and leadership development institute. In a moving graduation ceremony, people shared what the experience had meant to them and the next steps in their organizing work. INDELI has been a family experience, and a participant's infant daughter took her first steps that weekend at Highlander. We teased what a great story that will make when she comes back in 35-40 years to become the director.
We are excited about Highlander's work and where we are headed. Like you, following this fall's elections, we see glimmers of hope and we are eager to work with you to continue strengthening grassroots organizing to turn our country toward justice and fairness. We ask your continued generosity to help us sustain this needed work.
Thank you, and peace be with you and yours,
Pam McMichael
Director
P.S. Save the Date: Highlander's 75th anniversary on Aug 31-Sept 2, 2007 - a time of Celebration, Education, and Inspiration. More details soon to follow.
You can contribute to Highlander's work by clicking on the button below. All contributions handled securely by Groundspring.
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