{"id":6711,"date":"2014-06-10T00:24:13","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T04:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=6711"},"modified":"2014-06-10T16:17:41","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T20:17:41","slug":"the-labor-lyceum-movement-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2014\/06\/the-labor-lyceum-movement-in-philadelphia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Labor Lyceum Movement in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Kensington Labor Lyceum Hall, Second Street North of Cambria Street, 1898 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of all the places where Mother Jones might<\/em> have started her famous 1903 protest known as the March of the Mill Children<\/a>, which did she find the most strategic? Philadelphia\u2019s Kensington Labor Lyceum at 2nd<\/sup> and Cambria Streets.<\/p>\n

Of all the halls where Mother Jones might<\/em> have advised a thousand young seamstresses on the verge of the \u201cthe great Philadelphia shirtwaist strike of 1909<\/a>\u201d which did she visit? Philadelphia\u2019s Labor Lyceum at Sixth and Brown Streets. (Become \u201cindependent workers who will assert their rights…get the spirit of revolt and be a woman.”)<\/p>\n

When Eugene V. Debs<\/a> came to Philadelphia in 1908 campaigning for the U.S. presidency, on what stages did he proclaim: \u201cWe are today upon the verge of the greatest organic change in all of history. \u2026 We are permeated with the spirit of the new social order and of the grander civilization\u2026. Here in the United States we are very happily approaching the third revolution\u201d? Debs\u2019 advocated his \u201cthird revolution<\/a>\u201d on stages at both<\/i> Labor Lyceums: Northern Liberties and<\/i> Kensington.<\/p>\n

At the Kensington Lyceum in January 1921<\/a>, thousands of textile workers filled \u201cevery seat and windowsill\u201d and \u201cevery inch of standing room\u201d before marching up 2nd<\/sup> Street to support strikers at the textile mills. \u201cBright-eyed girls,\u201d burly men and \u201ccareworn women\u201d were stirred by the \u201csilver tongued\u201d labor leader Abraham Plotkin and his warnings. \u201cThe fellow who hasn\u2019t a job and is cold, and whose stomach hurts all the time from hunger is dangerous. \u2026 Out of unemployed come the tramps, out of the tramps come the criminals, and out of the criminals, the jails. We\u2019ve learned this from hard knocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Labor Lyceums were places were free speech reigned and where all<\/em> ideas were welcome.<\/p>\n

The idea of the Lyceum was first presented at a Labor Day picnic in 1889, the brainchild of Frederick Wilhelm Fritzsche<\/a>, a self-described \u201clabor agitator\u201d from Germany. The city\u2019s first Labor Lyceum thrived in rented quarters at 441 North 5th<\/sup> Street and served as a headquarters for unions and a home away from home for workers. Members would come for meetings, for votes, and for \u201cmental and moral improvements\u201d in the form of classes in typewriting, singing, drawing, cabinetmaking and English. When Lyceums had the space, they\u2019d also offer libraries packed with books, in German and English.<\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>
Northern Liberties Labor Lyceum Hall, Sixth Street, North of Brown Street in 1899. (Google Books)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1893, the Congregation Keneseth Israel vacated their large (126 by 96 feet), ornate 1860s building at 809-817 North 6th<\/sup> Street (just north of Brown Street) for a larger synagogue<\/a> on Broad Street where Temple University\u2019s Law School stands today. The burgeoning Lyceum immediately stepped in and bought the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabor’s New Home<\/i>,\u201d read the Inquirer<\/i> headline describing the move to the new quarters. \u201cOver three thousand men were in line with banners and brass bands\u2026entered the new building\u2026\u201d The Fresco Painters\u2019 Union led the procession \u201cwith their blood-red flag and badges;\u201d followed by the Typographers, with their banners with Guttenberg and Franklin. There were the Metal Workers, the Carpenters, Cigar Makers\u2019, Cigar Packers, Dyers, Leathers Workers, Blacksmiths Wheelwrights, Harness Makers, Barkeepers, Waiters and the Socialist Labor Union. \u00a0They arrived at the new building and \u201ccrowded into the big hall\u2026 decked with greens and flags.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea of the Lyceum was so successful that, less than two years later, the city\u2019s textile unions hired architect A. C. Wagner<\/a> to design and build the Kensington Labor Lyceum in the heart of the city’s s textile district, on Second Street just north of Cambria.<\/p>\n

When Fritzsche died in 1905, the Lyceum on 6th<\/sup> Street became his memorial. “Thousands Mourn Dead Socialist,”<\/i> read the headline. Fritzsche\u2019s body laid \u201cin state in the hall\u201d as \u201cfive thousand men and women trudged through the rain and icy streets\u201d to pay last respects. \u201cThe auditorium was decorated with long streamers of red bunting, the symbol of socialism, kept in place by black rosettes. Over the catafalque hung the inscription: \u2018Arbeiter Aller Lander Vereinigt Euch.\u2019\u201d Workers of the World Unite. <\/i><\/p>\n

What\u2019s left today? No buildings. Only faded memories, a handful of archived images and newspaper articles.<\/p>\n

And a whole lot of history.<\/p>\n

[Consulted newspaper articles include: \u201cThe Labor Lyceum,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer,<\/i> November 4, 1891; \u201cLabor’s New Home,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer,<\/i> April 23, 1893; \u201cWorld of Labor,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/i>, October 15, 1899; \u201cThousands Mourn Dead Socialist,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer,<\/i> February 13, 1905.]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of all the places where Mother Jones might have started her famous 1903 protest known as the March of the Mill Children, which did she find the most strategic? Philadelphia\u2019s Kensington Labor Lyceum at 2nd and Cambria Streets. Of all the halls where Mother Jones might have advised a thousand young seamstresses on the verge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}