Education for Action: California Labor School, 1942-1957

A special exhibit at the Tenderloin Museum

In collaboration with the Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University

On View January 5-July 1, 2023

EXTENDED through December 2023!

Tenderloin Museum & the Labor Archives and Research Center present Education for Action: California Labor School, 1942-1957, a special exhibit exploring the activities and legacy of The California Labor School (CLS), founded by unions to educate workers on the mechanics of union, social, economic, and political response to the world struggle against fascism.  The School’s building at 240 Golden Gate has long been a regular stop on the Tenderloin Museum’s resident-led walking tours, and TLM’s permanent history exhibit spotlights the school.

The current exhibit, Education for Action: California Labor School, 1942-1957, takes a closer look at this remarkable institution, utilizing LARC’s extensive California Labor School Collection, which contains catalogs, class syllabi, and correspondence that brings the story of CLS to life.  In addition to these materials, LARC recently completed the digitization of its California Labor School Negatives Collection of some 483 images; Education for Action: California Labor School, 1942-1957 at the Tenderloin Museum incorporates these images into its survey of this vital cultural hub for the San Francisco Bay Area’s progressive and labor communities during the 1940s and 1950s.  

Active between 1942-1957, the school was originally founded as the Tom Mooney School in a few rooms over an auto salesroom at 678 Turk on the edge of the TL, an enclave for working people. At its inception, the California Labor School was positioned as part of a Popular Front, a coalition of organized labor, New Deal liberals, the Communist Party, and other leftist organizations united in the fight against fascism. Knowledge was seen as a weapon to win the war and shape a new world of peace, dignity, and security.

In 1944, the school changed its name to the California Labor School and by 1946 was successful enough to expand its campuses to Oakland, Berkeley, and Los Angeles. In 1947, CLS purchased their own building at 240 Golden Gate in the heart of the Tenderloin, which to this day is still home to a union local (SEIU) and bears a “lost landmark” plaque commemorating this radical institution. During the height of the anti-Communist 1950s, the school was targeted as subversive due to its affiliation with the Communist Party, and its tax-exempt status was revoked, leading to its closure in 1957.

At the height of the school’s existence, the curriculum offered courses exploring history, social sciences, labor issues, philosophy, literature, theater, and other humanities courses taught from a working-class perspective. The art programs were among the most popular, and many leading artists, musicians, and actors taught or lectured at the school. The CLS also published a literary magazine and hosted art exhibitions, cultural symposia, plays, revues, and music forums.

During the course of the exhibition, Tenderloin Museum will feature public programming inspired by the CLS arts curricula throughout summer of 2023. This exhibition and related programming is made possible thanks to grants from California Humanities and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. 

Upcoming Education for Action Public Programs:

Past Education for Action Public Programs

About The Labor Archives and Research Center (LARC):

The Labor Archives and Research Center (LARC) preserves the rich, lively labor history of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Founded in 1985 by trade union leaders, historians, labor activists and university administrators, the Labor Archives is a unit of the J. Paul Leonard Library at San Francisco State University.  The Labor Archives collection includes materials from the counties surrounding San Francisco Bay, including Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. More than 6,000 feet of primary source material is available for research. Spanning from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, the collection includes union records, the personal papers of labor leaders, attorneys, arbitrators, and rank-and-file workers, personal memorabilia, photographs, ephemera, and oral histories that document the lives and stories of working men and women. Visual materials, in addition to photographs, include cartoons, banners, posters, prints, handbills, picket signs, and buttons.