The California Labor School (until 1945 named the Tom Mooney Labor School) was an educational organization in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

from 1942 to 1957. Like the contemporary Jefferson School of Social Science and the New York Workers School, it represented the "transformed and upgraded" successors of the "workers schools" of the 1920s and 1930s.

History

During World War II, as part of Browderism, Communist Party USA leader Earl Browder established new communist "schools of social sciences" in major urban areas. On the East Coast, these schools included names of American patriots: the Sam Adams School (Boston), Tom Paine School of Social Sciences (Philadelphia), George Washington Carver School (Harlem, New York), Abraham Lincoln School (Chicago), and Jefferson School of Social Sciences (New York). West Coast schools used geographic names: the Pacific Northwest Labor School and the California Labor School.

Founding

The CLS was founded in August 1942, in premises above a car showroom at 678 Turk Street in San Francisco, and named for labor leader Tom Mooney, who had died on March 6 that year. It later moved to a 5-story building at 216 Market Street, and in 1947 bought premises at 240 Golden Gate Avenue. The school was supported by 72

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 ...

s, including members of the American Federation of Labor and the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of Labor unions in the United States, unions that organized workers in industrial unionism, industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in ...

. Its initial program "promised to analyze social, economic and political questions in light of the present world struggle against fascism". It also taught the arts: the teenage

Maya Angelou Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credi ...

had a scholarship to study dance and drama. The school taught students on many subjects such as labor organization, journalism, music, drama, history, women's studies, economics and industrial arts. Union officials and professors from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and the University of California at Berkeley taught the courses at CLS. The most popular course at the CLS called "Mental Hygiene Today" was taught by

Erik Erikson Erik Homburger Erikson (born Erik Salomonsen; 15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was a German-American child psychoanalyst and visual artist known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He coined the phrase identity crisis. ...

. The most important history course was called "History and Problems of the

Negro In the English language, the term ''negro'' (or sometimes ''negress'' for a female) is a term historically used to refer to people of Black people, Black African heritage. The term ''negro'' means the color black in Spanish and Portuguese (from ...

in America". The school offered different kinds of services such as preparing union pamphlets and newspapers, conducting dance concerts and theatrical shows at local meetings.

Funding

The largest funder of the CLS was the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), headed by Harry Bridges. The American Federation of Labor (AFL), Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), American Veterans Committee, and the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

(NAACP) also supported it.

Attendance and closure

From 1945 to 1947 the school was accredited for veterans' education under the G.I. Bill of Rights, and by 1947 there were 220 full-time students, among the 1800 students attending 135 classes. In 1948 the school was placed on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations and attendances declined. The school closed in 1957.

Faculty and teachers

David Jenkins was the initial director and Holland Roberts was the first education director for this "people's school."

Legacy

Archives of the school's material are held in the Labor Archives & Research Center of California State University and the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. ''Includes several paragraphs about the school'' The Graphic Arts Workshop (GAW) of San Francisco, a cooperative print studio, was founded in 1952 by several artists from the California Labor School.

Los Angeles People's Educational Center

From 1944 to 1948, the school ran a "counterpart" or "extension" called the "People's Educational Center" (or "Peoples Educational Center). Its head was Dorothy Healey, head of the Communist Party of Los Angeles. Frances Eisenberg of Canoga Park High School served on its board of directors. John Howard Lawson was an instructor there. Robert E. Stripling stated that the center succeed the writers school of the League of American Writers.

Sam Wood Samuel Grosvenor Wood (July 10, 1883 – September 22, 1949) was an American film director and producer who is best known for having directed such Hollywood hits as ''A Night at the Opera (film), A Night at the Opera'', ''A Day at the Races (fi ...

testified that

Edward Dmytryk Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was a Canadian-born American film director and editor. He was known for his 1940s films noir, noir films and received an Academy Award for Best Director, Oscar nomination for Best Director for ...

taught there. Oliver Carlson testified that William Wolfe of the ILGWU education department ran it, succeeded by Sidney Davison (sent from New York); Herbert Biberman taught there (Soviet theater), as did Guy Endore Robert Lees. Advisors included Lees, Lawson, Healey, Herbert Sorrell, Frank Tuttle, and Sondra Gorney.

References

External sources

* {{Authority control Education in San Francisco 1942 establishments in California Labor schools 1950s disestablishments in California Educational institutions established in 1942