Topic: Highlander Folk School

The conversation shifts to the Highlander Folk School and the creation of the civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome. Septima Clark, Pete Seeger, and Guy Carowan adapted an old hymn, changing the lyrics and tempo to make it suitable for marching. This is presented as an example of how music is intentionally modified to serve as a unifying political tool.

The hosts reveal that Rosa Parks attended the Highlander Folk School, described as a "communist training ground," four months before her arrest. They suggest that her refusal to give up her seat was a planned event coordinated with E.D. Nixon and the Durrs. This school is also noted for being the origin of the song "We Shall Overcome" and for training other civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr.

The hosts discuss how Rosa Parks was strategically chosen to be the face of the Montgomery bus boycott over 15-year-old Claudette Colvin. Colvin had refused to give up her seat nine months earlier, but activists felt she was not the right "cast" for the movement because she was dark-skinned and allegedly pregnant. Parks, a trained activist who attended the Highlander Folk School, was deemed more marketable for the legal challenge.

The Highlander Folk School in Tennessee is identified as a training center for civil rights activists with strong communist ties. Co-founder Miles Horton and MLK advisor Stanley Levinson were both scrutinized by the FBI for their links to the Communist Party USA. The hosts suggest that the school served as a hub for pushing radical ideologies under the guise of labor and civil rights organizing.

The iconic civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" was adapted at the Highlander Folk School from an old hymn and labor song. Musicians Pete Seeger and Guy Carowan changed the lyrics from "will" to "shall" and adjusted the tempo to make it suitable for marching. The hosts describe the song as a "trigger" or "meme" used to unify the movement and evoke specific emotional responses.