The original portion of the records of the Highlander Research and Education Center, 1917-1973, document the activities of both the Highlander Folk School and the Highlander Center primarily through 1966, when the Appalachian era of program emphasis began. All of the activities discussed in the Biography/History section, up through 1973, are documented in the records. A wide variety of types of documentation are included: minutes, annual reports, correspondence, financial materials, workshop materials, legal documents, play scripts, song sheets and books, clippings, speeches, writings, and publications. These materials are arranged in six series: ADMINISTRATIVE FILES, GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, SUBJECT FILES, PUBLICATIONS, CLIPPINGS, and AUDIO RECORDINGS. Photographs received with these files are described in Part 3 of this finding aid.

The ADMINISTRATIVE FILES contains basic historical documents such as charters and constitutions; policy statements; annual reports; executive council minutes, lists, reports and memoranda; staff meeting minutes; financial reports; and scattered personnel records. Arrangement is by the categories listed and chronologically thereunder.

The GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE series totals 26 boxes and is arranged alphabetically by individual or organization name. (A notable exception is the heading "Intra-Staff Correspondence" which includes primarily early correspondence between various Highlander staff members.) Correspondents range from people involved in the labor movement to people involved in the civil rights movement through board members and other friends of Highlander, former students, and potential or past employees. The large number of correspondents who were active in a large number of other organizations indicates how widespread was Highlander's influence. All phases of activity are discussed. Frequently correspondence in this series complements other materials and other correspondence filed in the Subject File, and the researcher will find it necessary to examine materials in both series to get a complete picture of any one event. This series was maintained basically as Highlander had kept it, merely interfiling chronologically and alphabetically to make one single run and adding stray letters which had no natural home elsewhere in the Papers.

The SUBJECT FILE is the heart of the collection and includes the most detailed information on just what happened when and why. It is comprised of a wide variety of materials including correspondence, reports on workshop sessions, class materials and student products, alumni lists and questionnaires, addresses and speeches, trial transcripts and other legal materials, occasional clippings, labor play scripts, song books and song sheets, field trip reports, conference programs, news releases, writings about Highlander, and writings by people associated with Highlander. Arrangement is alphabetical and several inclusive categories have been established to group like materials, for instance, the categories "Attacks and investigations," "Conferences and meetings," "Fundraising," "Grundy County, Tennessee," "Labor extension work," "Labor workshops," "Music," "Publicity," "Summerfield, Tennessee," "Visitors," "Work camps," "Workshops," and "Writings. " This series fills 54 boxes, and is also available on microfilm.

The fourth series, PUBLICATIONS, consists of writings which were actually published by Highlander. This includes articles about Highlander, instructional materials from the labor period, occasional speeches presented at workshops, the Highlander Fling which reported events at Highlander, Highlander song books, the locally-aimed Summerfield News, and various other publications. Arrangement is alphabetical by title.

The CLIPPINGS series is arranged chronologically by year. These clippings were received in this file and have been maintained to provide a single chronological source of detailed information up through circa 1973. This series is now available only on microfilm; the originals were discarded after filming.

The AUDIO RECORDINGS concern executive council meetings; letters dictated by Myles Horton; addresses and speeches; the Appalachian project; attacks on and investigations of Highlander, including the court hearings at Altamont, Tennessee; citizenship and community leadership programs; the Farmers Union; fundraising; the Harlan, Kentucky, coal strike; Koinonia Farm; labor workshops; music and poetry; recordings from the film Highlander Story '53; workshops; desegregation; leadership training; and voter registration.