The Jefferson School of Social Science was an

adult education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained educating activities in order to gain new knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralph G. ''The Pr ...

institution of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

located in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The so-called "Jeff School" was launched in 1944 as a successor to the party's New York Workers School, albeit skewed more towards community outreach and education rather than the training of party functionaries and activists, as had been the primary mission of its predecessor. Peaking in size in 1947 and 1948 with an attendance of about 5,000, the Jefferson School was embroiled in controversy during the McCarthy period including a 1954 legal battle with the Subversive Activities Control Board over the school's refusal to register as a so-called "Communist-controlled organization." With the Communist Party in membership decline and financial chaos, the Jefferson School was forced to close its doors in 1956 in the face of government pressure.

Institutional history

Establishment

The Jefferson School of Social Science was established by the

(CPUSA) in 1943 as part of that organization's effort to expand the teaching of

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

to the

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

.Marv Gettleman, "Jefferson School of Social Science," in Mari Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle, and Dan Georgakas (eds.), ''Encyclopedia of the American Left.'' First Edition. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1990; pp. 389-390. Communists of the day believed that Marxism was a form of science which it believed was being willfully ignored in the public schools and sought to correct what it viewed as a systemic educational shortcoming. Moreover, the Communist Party sought to bolster community goodwill through its efforts as part of its Popular Front effort to integrate itself into American society. Unlike its predecessor, the New York Workers School, the Jefferson School was not focused upon the recruitment and training of new party members but was rather conceived as tool for more broad outreach into the community. The school did contain within it a more traditional apparatus for training of professional party cadres, however, an Institute of Marxist Studies which conducted a three-year program of study.David A. Shannon, ''The Decline of American Communism: A History of the Communist Party of the United States Since 1945.'' New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1959; pg. 87. The Jefferson School was housed in a 9-storey building located at 575 Sixth Avenue in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

.Peter Filardo
"Guide to the Jefferson School of Social Science Records and Indexes: Historical/Biographical Note,"
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University, New York, NY. The school was built around a library of 30,000 volumes and offered scores of classes each term covering history, politics,

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

affairs, ideology, and the sundry

social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

s. In addition to "serious" topics, the Jefferson School added courses of a more whimsical or apolitical nature, including such topics as creative writing, art appreciation, health, interior decorating, and personal beauty on a budget. Traditional lecture-based adult education was further supplemented by the Jefferson School's hosting of periodic public events, including single-admission lectures, workshops, musical concerts, and dramatic performances. Director of the Jefferson School was a former professor of philosophy at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

, Howard Selsam. Instructors and school administrators were paid for their efforts, with funds coming at least in part from course registration fees.

Growth

At the time of its launch in 1943, about 2,500 students attended courses at the Jefferson School of Social Science. Participation in the school doubled by the 1947/48 academic year, when attendance peaked at approximately 5,000. In addition to its main facility on Sixth Avenue, the Jefferson School also for a time operated satellite facilities, including two temporary schools in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

aimed at building African-American participation in the Communist movement — the Harlem Leadership Training School and the Maceo Snipes School. These branch operations were primarily focused upon the radicalization of black students and their attraction to the Communist Party rather than the adult education orientation of the main branch of the Jefferson School. While the Jefferson School in New York City was the flagship of the Communist Party's adult education and party training schools, it was not the organization's sole enterprise. Other Communist Party schools during the middle part of the 20th century included the Abraham Lincoln School for Social Science in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, the Samuel Adams School in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and the San Francisco Labor School.

Legal battle

In 1949, FBI undercover agent/informer Angela Calomiris testified during the Foley Square trial that she took "educational courses" on communism at the Jefferson School and the New York Workers School. During the

Second Red Scare McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage in the United S ...

of the early 1950s, the United States government attempted to identify, isolate, and discredit various so-called

front groups A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gr ...

of the Communist Party. Key to this process was mandatory registration of Communist-controlled institutions with the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB). The Jefferson School initially fought this requirement, an action which resulted in a 1954 legal case, ''Jefferson School v. Subversive Activities Control Board''. An appeal dragged on to 1963, after the dissolution of the school.

Termination

From about 1953 the Jefferson School of Social Science had begun having trouble attracting enough paying students to cover the cost of its operations, forcing the Communist Party to assume an active role in subsidizing its operations.Shannon, ''The Decline of American Communism,'' pg. 359. This situation worsened as the decade progressed, with negative publicity associated with the school's legal difficulties and a growing popular hostility to Communism placing both the school and the party in an ever more difficult financial position. The February 1956 secret speech of Soviet leader

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

, "

On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" () was a report by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, made to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on 25 Febr ...

," had the effect of disorienting and discouraging the membership of the CPUSA. Shocked by Khrushchev's revelations of the mass crimes of the

Stalin era Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

, the party lost a spate of members and split into bitterly feuding factions who disagreed about the nature of the Soviet state and the path forward for American radicals. The Jefferson School played a part in this internal debate, sponsoring a series of four public meetings dealing with the importance of the soviet leader's revelations at the

20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union () was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's " Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictator ...

. At the last of these sessions, John Gates, editor of the official party newspaper, '' The Worker,'' was sharply critical of the American party's blind obedience, its support of its

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

opponents under the

Smith Act The Alien Registration Act, popularly known as the Smith Act, 76th United States Congress, 3rd session, ch. 439, , is a United States federal statute that was enacted on June 28, 1940. It set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of ...

, and its failure to commit itself to a peaceful path to socialism based upon maintained

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...

.Shannon, ''The Decline of American Communism,'' pg. 282. The school became in its last year loosely associated with the Gates reform faction, which was opposed by a group favoring continuation of past practices, which included party leaders William Z. Foster,

Eugene Dennis Francis Xavier Waldron (August 10, 1905 – January 31, 1961), best known by the pseudonym Eugene Dennis and Tim Ryan, was an American communist politician and union organizer, best remembered as the long-time leader of the Communist Party USA ...

, and Gus Hall. With the Communist Party shattered and impoverished, the Jefferson School of Social Science terminated its operations in 1956, having been branded as a "Communist-controlled organization" by the SACB.

Leadership

The first and only director of the school was the philosopher Howard Selsam. According to investigation led by Benjamin Mandel of the US

Senate Internal Security Subcommittee The United States Senate's Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 1951–77, known more commonly as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and sometimes the M ...

(SISS), the school's 1951 administration included Frederick V. Field as secretary and Alexander Trachtenberg as treasurer. According to a 1956 announcement of the school's closure, the school's administration comprised: Howard Selsam, director; David Goldway, executive secretary; and Doxey A. Wilkerson, director of curriculum.

Legacy

The bulk of the Jefferson School's papers resides at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. Some eight linear feet of material is held in the New York University collection.

Footnotes

External sources

* Richard J. Altenbaugh, ''Education for Struggle: American Labor Colleges of the 1920s and 1930s.'' Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1990. * Peter Filardo
"Guide to the Jefferson School of Social Science (New York, NY) Records and Indexes,"
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University, New York, NY. * Marvin Gettleman
"Lost World of U.S. Labor Education: Curricula at East and West Coast Community Schools, 1944-1957,"
Paper presented to the Gotham Center for New York City History, October 7, 2001. * Marvin E. Gettleman, "'No Varsity Teams': New York's Jefferson School of Social Science, 1943–1956," ''Science & Society,'' vol. 66, no. 3 (Fall 2002), pp. 336–359
In JSTOR
* Andy Hines, ''Outside Literary Studies: Black Criticism and the University.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022. * Daniel F. Ring, "Two Cultures: Libraries, the Unions, and the 'Case' of the Jefferson School of Social Science," ''The Journal of Library History,'' vol. 20, no. 3 (Summer 1985), pp. 287– 301. * Ellen Schrecker, ''No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. * Jefferson School of Social Science Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jefferson School of Social Science Labor schools Socialism in New York (state) Communist Party USA mass organizations Educational institutions established in 1943 Educational institutions disestablished in 1956 Schools in Manhattan 1943 establishments in New York City 1956 disestablishments in New York (state)