Commonwealth College (Arkansas)

Commonwealth College (1923–1940) was a college started 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 New Llano Cooperative Colony in Louisiana, in 1923, William Zeuch, James McDonald,^{[citation needed]} Kate Richards O'Hare, and Frank P. O'Hare joined with New Llano to found the institute in 1923. In the 1930s Commonwealth was essentially oriented towards training organizers for the rapidly growing labor movement. Tensions within the cooperative community led to a split, and Zeuch and Kate Richards and Frank P. O'Hare moved to Mena, Arkansas in December 1924,^{[citation needed]} where the institution re-opened the next year.

The college's founders, who were members of the Socialist Party of America, named the school after the phrases "the cooperative commonwealth" and "the universal commonwealth", which were used by many party members to describe their vision of a post-capitalist society.

While campaigning for the Socialist Party of America, Kate Richards O'Hare and her husband Frank P. O'Hare met fellow activist William Zeuch, and the trio devised a plan for a college for workers who wished to develop their skills, as well as advance activism within the labor movement. They also envisioned for the college itself to double as a cooperative living space.

Commonwealth College aimed to recruit and train people to take the lead in social and 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.^{[citation needed]} Each student was required to donate 20 hours of labor per week either in the carpentry shop or in the fields, sometimes even driving a team of giant white Arkansas mules.^{[citation needed]} There was much curiosity nationally about Commonwealth. As an example, Roger Nash Baldwin, long-time director of the American Civil Liberties Union, was an active member of its advisory board. This curiosity often led to financial contributions. Upton Sinclair, Louis Brandeis, and V.F. Calverton are among the notable donors to Commonwealth.

In 1926, the American Legion condemned the school, accusing it of being funded by the Soviet Union. These allegations, although later proven untrue, were later amplified by local newspapers, who also accused the school of promoting countercultural practices such as free love, as well as Bolshevism. Although the school remained segregated, and its attempts to hire black faculty failed, locals were concerned that the school was promoting racial equality.

In response to the poor relations with surrounding communities, Zeuch, who already exhibited socially conservative tendencies, attempted to implement a strict behavioral policy for students, which prohibited "inappropriate dress, language, interdormitory visits, drinking", and other types of behavior. However, these policies alienated many of the school's students. Divisions between the school's administrators and students were also exacerbated by differences over the school's curriculum. While Commonwealth's founders sought to equip students with a liberal arts education, many of the school's students, and some of their faculty, wanted more practical training, particularly in regards to labor activism.

Zeuch quit as director in 1931, when, after a student-led revolt, he accepted a Guggenheim Fellowship to study in Europe for a year and did not return.^{[citation needed]} For the next six years,^{[citation needed]} leadership of Commonwealth passed to Lucien Koch, who oversaw a curriculum shift which focused more on labor activism, journalism, public speaking, and labor law. Under Koch's administration, the school sought to integrate itself with local labor movements and activism, travelling throughout Arkansas, and to Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kentucky to engage with local labor movements. Commonwealth College sent a delegation, which included Koch, to Harlan County in 1932, to support striking workers in the Harlan County War. These activities further enraged many locals, but began attracting a wider, and more militant, student body.

During this period, a number of students and faculty began turning away from the policies of the Socialist Party of America, and began joining and involving with the Communist Party, resulting in sharp divisions. Increasingly, students began criticizing Koch for refusing to affiliate with any political party, and, at one point, a group of communist students asked the administration to racially integrate. When this was refused, a strike was called by the communists.^{[citation needed]} The strike lasted for a short time until the communist students and a few others left the school en masse for Chicago.^{[citation needed]} This strike resulted in a fatal blow to Commonwealth College.^{[citation needed]} Many students then at Commonwealth believed that bringing a black student into the school would result in serious trouble, if not a lynching, in the then all-white Polk County in which the school was located.^{[citation needed]} Reportedly a black person had not stayed overnight for years.^{[citation needed]}