Don West Papers
Abstract
Don West (1906-1992) was a was an American writer, poet, educator, trade union organizer, civil-rights activist. He was an alumni of LMU. These papers are correspondences from Don West to various individuals at Lincoln Memorial University.
Dates
- 1947-1982
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Extent
0.003 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Bibliography
He was an alumni of "Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) in Tennessee, where he met and married Mabel Constance “Connie” Adams. [Though he was] Expelled from LMU for leading a protest against campus paternalism, the popular West was reinstated and graduated in the class of 1929." He then went to to Vanderbuilt University for their Divinity School where he graduated in 1932. That same year he became the co-founder of the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, TN with Myles Horton, though soon left to to establish the Southern Folk School and Libraries in Kennesaw. He continued to organize strikes and protests, most notably his defense of labor organizer Angelo Herndon in 1933. During this time he also became saturated in folk school philosopies inspired by N.F.S. Grundtvig.
West's career changed from serving to education when he became the super entendent in Lula in Hall County. He was the a recipient of the Rosenwald Fellowship (1945), and then at Oglethorpe University. He published many works, including Clods of Southern Earth in 1946.
In the 1950s, West was under scrutiny of his affiliation and labor activism. He was forced to speak before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in 1957.
West founded Appalachian South Folklife Center at Pipestem, West Virginia in 1964 where he would remain as a educator and writer "emphasizing the preservation of Appalachian values and resistance to the corrosive forces of industrialism".
Summary and excerpts taken from: Lorence, James. "Don West." New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified May 8, 2017. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/don-west-1906-1992/
- Title
- Don West Papers
- Author
- Processed and written by Olivia Coyne.
- Date
- 2025 November
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the University Archives & Special Collections Repository
Lincoln Memorial Univesity
Carnegie-Vincent Library
6965 Cumberland Gap Parkway
Harrogate Tennessee 37752 United States
archives@lmunet.edu