Zilphia Horton
Zilphia Horton | |
---|---|
Born | April 14, 1910 Arkansas |
Died | April 11, 1956 Tennessee |
Genres | protest music |
Occupation(s) | musician, ethnomusicologist, labor organizer, activist, teacher |
Instrument(s) | accordion |
Years active | 1935–1956 |
Zilphia Horton (April 14, 1910 – April 11, 1956) was an American
Early life
Zilphia was born Zilphia Mae Johnson in the coal mining town of Spadra, Arkansas.[1] She was the second child of Robert Guy Johnson and Ora Ermon Howard Johnson. Her father was superintendent of the local coal mine which he later owned and operated, and her mother was a school teacher. While some sources describe her as being of mixed Spanish and Native American heritage,[2] others describe her as white.[3]
Education and career
She was a graduate of the College of the Ozarks University of the Ozarks, where she was trained as a classical musician.[4]
After graduating, Horton was determined to use her talents for the better good of the southern working class. Her political interest was awakened by the Presbyterian minister, Claude C. Williams, who attempted to organize her father's workers for the Progressive Miners' Union.[5] She joined the unionization efforts despite her father's disapproval and was disowned by him as a result.[6]
In 1935, she attended a workshop at the Highlander Folk School, a social justice leadership training school and cultural center located in Monteagle, Tennessee. Horton arrived at Highlander Folk School, now known as the Highlander Research and Education Center, committed to the idea that music and drama could help organize labor.[6] Months after attending her first Highlander workshop, she married the school's founder, Myles Horton, and began working for the Highlander Folk School.
Zilphia Horton had numerous roles at Highlander Folk School, serving as music and drama director from 1938 to 1956.
![sheet music for the song "we shall overcome"](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/We_Shall_Overcome_-_Ludlow_Version_%281960%29.png/220px-We_Shall_Overcome_-_Ludlow_Version_%281960%29.png)
She is perhaps best known for teaching
On April 11, 1956, she died after accidentally drinking a glass of typewriter cleaning fluid containing carbon tetrachloride she mistook for water.[10]
Personal life
Zilphia and Myles Horton had two children.
Legacy
Zilphia Horton's papers are deposited in the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville.[11]
A biography, A Singing Army: Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School by Kim Ruehl, was published by University of Texas Press in April, 2021.[12]
References
- ^ ProQuest 2024473189.
- ISBN 978-1-61117-382-6.
- ^ Davis, Elizabeth Cooper (2017). Making Movement Sounds: The Cultural Organizing Behind the Freedom Songs of the Civil Rights Movement (Thesis). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University, The Department of African and African American Studies.
- ^ Phelps, Greg (March 15, 2018). "Zilphia Mae Johnson Horton (1910–1956)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
- ^ Carter, Vicki K. (Spring 1994). "The Singing Heart of Highlander Folk School". New Horizons in Adult Education. 8: 2.
- ^ ProQuest 1341449.
- ^ Massie-Legg, Alicia R. (2014). "Zilphia Horton, A Voice For Change". Ann Arbor: University of Kentucky. p. 6.
- .
- ^ Glen, John M. (1996). Highlander: No Ordinary School, 2nd ed. Knoxville: University' of Tennessee Press. p. 177.
- ^ Glen, John M. (1996). Highlander: No Ordinary School, 2nd ed. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. p. 138.
- ^ "HORTON, ZILPHIA, FOLK MUSIC COLLECTION, 1935–1956". Tennessee State Library and Archives. Retrieved March 3, 2017 – via Tennessee Secretary of State.
- ^ A Singing Army Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School by Kim Ruehl. June 21, 2021.
Further reading
- Ruehl, Kim. 2021. A Singing Army: Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-1-4773-1825-6
- Glen, John M. 2018-03-01. Zilphia J. Horton. Tennessee Encyclopedia. Tennessee Historical Society and University of Tennessee Press.
- Davis, Elizabeth Cooper. 2017. Making Movement Sounds: The Cultural Organizing Behind the Freedom Songs of the Civil Rights Movement. Dissertation, Harvard University. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:39987965