Commonwealth College, Arkansas

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For other institutions with similar names, see Commonwealth College.

Commonwealth College was started in 1923 to recruit and train people to take the lead in socio-economic reform and prepare them for unconventional roles in a new and different society. An outgrowth of Job Harriman's Newllano Cooperative Colony in Louisiana, in 1923, William Edward Zeuch, A. James McDonald, and Kate Richards O'Hare joined with Newllano to found the institute in 1923.

Tensions within cooperative community led to a split and Commonwealth’s founders moved to Mena, Arkansas in December, 1924 where the institution re-opened the next year.

1 History and approach
2 Alumni
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History and approach

Commonwealth College aimed to recruit and train people to take the lead in socio-economic reform and prepare them for unconventional roles in a new and different society. Students, staff, and faculty all worked together in the operation of the institution, from growing and preparing food to the construction and maintenance of buildings. There was a lot of curiosity nationally in Commonwealth. As an example, Roger Nash Baldwin, long-time director of the American Civil Liberties Union, was an active member of the advisory board.

The focus of Commonwealth’s founders was initially on self-support to insure independence from outside influence and a mission to educate idealistic leaders for the labor movement. Zeuch served as director until 1931, when after a student led revolt, he accepted a Guggenheim Fellowship to study in Europe for a year and did not return.

For the next six years, leadership of Commonwealth passed to Lucian Koch and an increasing emphasis was placed in activism for farm and labor causes.

Claude Williams then served as director from 1937 until 1940. Several people identified with Commonwealth were actively involved during this period with internal politics of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union. Critics in the state also argued that the institution was under Communist influence. Weakened ties with traditional supporters and shaky finances led to proposals for merger with the Highlander Folk School or the operation of a drama center affiliated with the New Theatre League of New York City. Ultimately the property was sold at a Polk County auction to satisfy fines levied against the institution.

Commonwealth’s legacy continued through the works of students that included: Agnes Cunningham & Lee Hays who were founders later with Pete Seeger of the Almanac Singers and The Weavers in New York City. Agnes later founded and helped edit Broadside Magazine. Kenneth Patchen, a student in 1930, was a well known poet and artist. Orval E. Faubus was a student and later served six terms as governor of Arkansas.

Other labor schools of the time: Denver Labor College, Work People's College, Brookwood Labor College (NY), Seattle Labor College and Highlander Folk School (TN). Commonwealth differed by offering a college-level curriculum

[edit] Alumni

Faculty at Commonwealth included: F.M. Goodhue (mathematics and statistics), Covington Hall (labor history), William Clark Benton (history and law), Kate Richards O'Hare, Bill Cunningham (journalism), John E. Kirkpatrick (author of the American College and Its Rulers, taught labor economics one term), Charlotte Koch (typing, executive secretary), Clay Fulks (law and agricultural problems), E.C. Wilson, Earl C. Hamilton (comparative religions), George Yeisley Rusk, and Lucien Koch.

[edit] References

Koch, Raymond & Charlotte. Educational Commune: The Story of Commonwealth College. NY: Schocken Books. 1972.
see also, Cobb, William H. Radical Education in the Rural South: Commonwealth College, 1922-1940. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000.