Harry Lasker Memorial Library
and Resource Center
Education for Action: The Harry Lasker Memorial Library is Highlander’s principal repository for the information we have gathered in six decades of social change work – over 6,000 books and hundreds of videotapes, audiotapes, periodicals, and research files.
The Library houses information from universities, government agencies, and other mainstream institutions; primary source material on historical social movements in the South; and field research developed by or in collaboration with literally hundreds of grassroots organizations.
The collection covers topics such as the following:
- the history and culture of the South and Appalachia;
- the effects of drastic economic changes on communities, and how communities respond;
- documenting the struggle over resources and the environment;
- the history of the civil rights movement and key efforts today;
- evolution of the labor movement since the 1930s, especially in the South;
- social movements in Latin America, Asia and eastern Europe;
- models of community action here at home;
- the theory and practice of popular education (for more information on this topic, see our Popular Education page).
Highlander’s Harry Lasker Library serves journalists, scholars and community-based researchers, including the participants in 40 plus Highlander workshops every year. In addition to helping academics, the press, and researchers find materials on the region’s history and culture (materials that have been used in several films, books and articles), we field requests from a great variety of grassroots researchers seeking practical information for community problem-solving: strategies for responding to hate groups, environmental impact analysis, non-violence training materials, contacts for networks of Native American activists, economic trends in the southeast, options for on-line computer services, model citizen health surveys, and so on. Over the long run, we help build citizen groups’ capacity to obtain and analyze the information they need to develop lasting solutions.
You can also access the Highlander archives at either the Wisconsin State Historial Archives or the Tennessee State Library and Archives. See our Links page for links to these archives and brief descriptions of the information available at each.
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