Donald Lee West (June 6, 1906 – September 29, 1992) was an American writer, poet, educator, trade union organizer,
civil-rights activist and a co-founder of the
Highlander Folk School
The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West (e ...
.
Early life and career
West was born in Devil's Hollow,
Gilmer County, Georgia, the child of North Georgia
sharecropper
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land.
Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...
s. In high school he led a protest against an on-campus showing of the film ''
The Birth of a Nation
''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Cla ...
'' and was eventually expelled for other conflicts. He was also expelled from
Lincoln Memorial University
Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) is a private university in Harrogate, Tennessee. LMU's campus borders on Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. As of fall 2019, it had 1,975 undergraduate and 2,892 graduate and professional students.
LMU i ...
, in
Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...
, Tennessee, for leading another protest against the paternalism of the campus, though he eventually returned and graduated in 1929. He went on to study under Alva Taylor and Willard Uphaus at the
Vanderbilt Divinity School
The Vanderbilt Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion (usually Vanderbilt Divinity School) is an interdenominational divinity school at Vanderbilt University, a major research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is one of o ...
in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
and was influenced by the
Social Gospel
The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean envir ...
movement. While a student, he became a Socialist and participated in
labor strikes in textile factories and coal mines. Like his eventual collaborator
Myles Horton
]
Myles Falls Horton (July 9, 1905– January 19, 1990) was an American educator, socialist, and co-founder of the Highlander Folk School, famous for its role in the Civil Rights Movement (Movement leader James Bevel called Horton "The Father o ...
, he travelled to
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
to tour the Danish
folk schools. These were schools that promoted adult education and community engagement. Upon their return, Horton and West co-founded the
Highlander Folk School
The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West (e ...
in
Monteagle, Tennessee
Monteagle is a town in Franklin, Grundy, and Marion counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, in the Cumberland Plateau region of the southeastern part of the state. The population was 1,238 at the 2000 census – 804 of the town's 1,238 resi ...
. West stayed there only a year, before leaving to found his own Southern Folk School and Libraries in
Kennesaw, Georgia
Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its ...
.
Radical and poet
West was often accused of being a Communist, but he denied it. In an interview with the Southern Oral History Program, he said, "I have never been a card carrying, dues paying member of the communist party... But I have worked closely with people whom I knew to be communist. And I would never red-bait."
Interview with Don West
January 22, 1975. Interview E-0016. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), Documenting the American South (DocSouth), University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jacquelyn Hall and Ray Faherty, interviewers.
He devoted himself to writing, lectures, and social causes. These included the defense of Angelo Herndon
Angelo Braxton Herndon (May 6, 1913 in Wyoming, Ohio, Wyoming, Ohio – December 9, 1997 in Sweet Home, Arkansas, Sweet Home, Arkansas) was an African-American Labour movement, labor organizer arrested and convicted of insurrection after attempti ...
, who was being tried in Atlanta for insurrection. He was also an organizational director of the Kentucky Workers Alliance. West later worked in churches in Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
and Georgia, taught and became a public school superintendent, and eventually joined the faculty of Oglethorpe University
Oglethorpe University is a private college in Brookhaven, Georgia. It was chartered in 1835 and named in honor of General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia.
History
Oglethorpe University was chartered in 1834 in Mid ...
in Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. Forced to leave Oglethorpe during the period of Red-baiting
Red-baiting, also known as ''reductio ad Stalinum'' () and red-tagging (in the Philippines), is an intention to discredit the validity of a political opponent and the opponent's logical argument by accusing, denouncing, attacking, or persecuting ...
, he continued to edit religious publications and teach creative writing. He testified before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee
The United States Senate's Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 1951–77, known more commonly as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and sometimes the M ...
in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
. He was subpoena
A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...
ed by the House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
but never testified. In the 1940s, his collection of poetry, ''Clods of Southern Earth'', became a literary phenomenon when it sold tens of thousands of copies. He appeared as the character "Tod North" in Clancy Sigal
Clancy Sigal (September 6, 1926 – July 16, 2017) was an American writer, and the author of dozens of essays and seven books, the best-known of which is the autobiographical novel ''Going Away'' (1961).
Early life and education
Sigal was born ...
's novel ''Going Away'' (1961).
Later life
In 1964, West and his wife, Connie West, invested in the establishment of the Appalachian South Folklife Center in Pipestem, West Virginia
Pipestem (also Jordans Chapel or Pipe Stem) is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Summers County, West Virginia, Summers County, West Virginia, United States. It lies along West Virginia Route 20 to the south-southwest of the ci ...
, Summers County, West Virginia
Summers County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 11,959. Its county seat is Hinton. The county was created by an act of the West Virginia Legislature on February 27, 1871, from pa ...
. One of their two daughters was Hedy West
Hedwig Grace "Hedy" West (April 6, 1938 – July 3, 2005) was an American folksinger and songwriter. She belonged to the same generation of folk revivalists as Joan Baez and Judy Collins. Her most famous song "500 Miles" is one of America's ...
(1938–2005), a well-known folksinger. West died in Charleston
Charleston most commonly refers to:
* Charleston, South Carolina
* Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital
* Charleston (dance)
Charleston may also refer to:
Places Australia
* Charleston, South Australia
Canada
* Charleston, Newfoundlan ...
, West Virginia, in 1992.
Sources
*James J. Lorence, Biography from the ''New Georgia Encyclopedia
The ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (NGE) is a web-based encyclopedia containing over 2,000 articles about the state of Georgia. It is a program of Georgia Humanities (GH), in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System o ...
'
*"A Radical of Long Standing," by Sheryl James, ''St. Petersburg Times,'' 198
*James J. Lorence, ''A Hard Journey: The Life of Don West'' (University of Illinois Press, 2007).
Selected works
*''Crab-Grass'' (poetry) (1931)
*''Songs for Southern Workers: Songbook of the Kentucky Workers Alliance.'' (1937; reprinted, Huntington, WV: Appalachian Movement Press, 1973)
*''Clods of Southern Earth'' (poetry, drawings by Harold Price) (New York: Boni and Gaer, 1946)
*''No Lonesome Road: Selected Prose and Poems'', ed. by Jeff Biggers and George Brosi (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004)
References
External links
Appalachian South Folklife Center
Highlander Research and Education Center
fro
Oral Histories of the American South
Don West's FBI files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (United States), FOIA and hosted at the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
Headquarters file part 1
Headquarters file part 2
Headquarters file part 3
Headquarters file part 4
Headquarters file part 5
Headquarters file part 6
Headquarters file part 7
Headquarters file part 8
Headquarters file part 9
Headquarters file part 10
Headquarters file part EBF235
Pittsburgh office file part 1
Pittsburgh office file part 2
Pittsburgh office file part 3
{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Don
American civil rights activists
American Christian socialists
20th-century American educators
American trade union leaders
Victims of McCarthyism
Poets from Georgia (U.S. state)
People from Gilmer County, Georgia
Oglethorpe University faculty
1906 births
1992 deaths
Lincoln Memorial University alumni
20th-century American poets
American Book Award winners