Fire Burns Down Main Building of Historic Civil Rights Space, the Highlander Center

Angela Helm
Today 7:54pm
Filed to: HIGHLANDER RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER

Early Friday morning, one of the buildings at the Highlander Research and Education Center, one of the nation’s oldest social justice institutions and training spaces, in New Market, Tenn., was engulfed in flames and had burned to the ground.

A press release from Highlander notes that only that one building was burned (one out of 10 on the organization’s 200 acres), and that it housed the offices of the organization’s leadership and staff.

Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and her co-executive director, the Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele, released a statement, noting that priceless artifacts and archives from the Civil Rights movement had been destroyed:

Highlander has been a movement home for nearly 87 years and has weathered many storms. This is no different. Several people were on the grounds at the time of the fire, but thankfully no one was inside the structure and no one was injured.

While we are physically unhurt, we are saddened about the loss of our main office. The fire destroyed decades of historic documents, speeches, artifacts and memorabilia from movements of all kinds, including the Civil Rights Movement. A fuller assessment of the damage will be forthcoming once we are cleared to enter the remains of the building.

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