13 Facts About Zilphia Horton

Zilphia Horton was an American musician, community organizer, educator, Civil Rights activist, and folklorist.

Zilphia Horton was the second child of Robert Guy Johnson and Ora Ermon Howard Johnson.

Zilphia Horton's father was superintendent of the local coal mine which he later owned and operated, and her mother was a school teacher.

Zilphia Horton was a graduate of the College of the Ozarks University of the Ozarks, where she was trained as a classical musician.

Zilphia Horton joined the unionization efforts despite her father's disapproval and was disowned by him as a result.

Zilphia 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.

Months after attending her first Highlander workshop, she married the school's founder, Myles Zilphia 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.

Zilphia Horton enhanced the cultural pluralism of the school by developing a curriculum which incorporated and elevated the importance of folk music, dance, and drama.

Zilphia Horton directed workers' theatre productions, junior union camps, and various community programs; organized union locals; and led singing at workshops, picket lines, union meetings, and fund-raising concerts.

Zilphia Horton had students collect folk songs, religious music, and union songs around the South, which she then re-wrote or re-worked into protest songs to serve in political struggles, including labor movements and the Civil rights movement.

Zilphia Horton is perhaps best known for teaching Pete Seeger an early version of "We Shall Overcome," which would become an important civil rights anthem of the twentieth century.

Zilphia Horton's papers are deposited in the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville.