There Once Was a Socialist College in the Rural South
Commonwealth College was a radical experiment in socialist education nestled deep in the Arkansas mountains. It taught and trained over 1,500 worker-activists before becoming an early casualty of American anti-communism.
The laundry tent at Commonwealth College, 1926. (Radical Education in the Rural South: Commonwealth College, 1922–1940 by William H. Cobb)
Anyone who aspired to attend Commonwealth College in rural Polk County, Arkansas, in 1931 would first have to fill out the following application:
Tell what you think of one or more of the following men: Lenin, Mussolini, Wilson, Hoover, Ramsay MacDonald.
Give your opinions on one of the following subjects: Democracy, Capitalism, Socialism, Americanism, Imperialism, Anarchism.
What real significance do you see in the revolt of the so-called modern youth? How do you explain that revolt?
Tell a good joke.
The radical faculty would have taken kindly to applicants who answered that Vladimir Lenin was a luminary and Benito Mussolini a scoundrel. They would have been pleased to read that socialism meant an end exploitation and domination, while capitalism meant their sustenance. And they would have agreed that the rebellious dress and behavior of young people represented an exuberant rejection outmoded thinking and illegitimate authority. The assignment to tell a good joke was meant to ensure the applicant knew how to have a good time.
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