Untold Stories of the Civil Rights Movement: March 12, 2026
Celebrated author Elaine Weiss will discuss her book “Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools that Built the Civil Rights Movement”
In 1954, Black educator Septima Clark and small businessman Esau Jenkins travelled to Tennessee’s Highlander Folk School, an interracial training center for social change founded by Myles Horton, a white southerner. The trio united behind a shared mission: preparing Black southerners to to confront segregation in their home towns and to pass the Jim Crow era voter registration literacy tests. They launched the Citizenship Schools project, which began with a single makeshift classroom in the back of a rural grocery store. By the time the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965, the unpublicized undertaking had trained hundreds of teachers and organizers across the South, preparing tens of thousands of Black citizens to read, write, demand their rights—and vote.
In 1954, Black educator Septima Clark and small businessman Esau Jenkins travelled to Tennessee’s Highlander Folk School, an interracial training center for social change founded by Myles Horton, a white southerner. The trio united behind a shared mission: preparing Black southerners to to confront segregation in their home towns and to pass the Jim Crow era voter registration literacy tests. They launched the Citizenship Schools project, which began with a single makeshift classroom in the back of a rural grocery store. By the time the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965, the unpublicized undertaking had trained hundreds of teachers and organizers across the South, preparing tens of thousands of Black citizens to read, write, demand their rights—and vote.
AUTHOR
Elaine Weiss is an award-winning journalist and author. Her book on the women's suffrage movement, The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote was a GoodReads Readers' Choice Award winner, short-listed for the 2019 Chautauqua Prize, and received the American Bar Association's highest honor, the 2019 Silver Gavel Award. Her newest book, Spell Freedom:The Underground Schools that Built the Civil Rights Movement has won high praise from scholars and readers alike, described as "a beautifully crafted and dramatic tale" told with "elegant writing, masterful storytelling, and prodigious research." Spell Freedom was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in nonfiction books, awarded by the American Library Association, and was selected by Amazon's editors as one of the best history books of 2025.
MODERATOR
Gordon Gibson has been involved in organizing and leading pilgrimages to civil rights sites since 2004. During the first weeks after Gordon was ordained, he was in Selma, Alabama, taking part in early phases of the 1965 voting rights campaign there. He also brings his experience of living in Mississippi 1969-1984 when he was the Unitarian Universalist minister in the state. For seven of those years he was also an investigator for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In retirement, Judy and Gordon Gibson live in Knoxville, Tennessee. Gordon is the author of Southern Witness: Unitarians and Universalists in the Civil Rights Era, an engaging account of the roles that UU individuals and congregations played in the civil rights movement in the South in the 1950s and '60s. Gordon currently serves as a member of the Board and as the LLP historian.
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All programs will be held on Zoom at 4:30 pm PT, 5:30 MT, 6:30 CT, and 7:30 ET. These webinars are free and open to the public, but registration is required. Donations are appreciated to support our ongoing educational efforts.
All programs will be held on Zoom at 4:30 pm PT, 5:30 MT, 6:30 CT, and 7:30 ET. These webinars are free and open to the public, but registration is required. Donations are appreciated to support our ongoing educational efforts.
Please note that program dates are subject to change. Registered participants will be notified of any changes. Recordings of the webinars will be available for on-demand viewing for those unable to attend live.
