Above: A booklet and guide for public forums - Bulletin 1935, No. 17 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1936). The New Deal--through the Office of Educaton and the WPA--created the Federal Forum Project, 1936-1941, so that Americans could meet and discuss issues important to their lives and their country. The forums were different than today's town halls, in that they were often led by subject matter experts and, in many cases, facilitated smaller group discussions. Image scanned from a personal copy.
Above: The driving force behind nationwide public forums in the United States--designed to enhance civic knowledge and democracy, and with funding assistance from the federal government--was John W. Studebaker (1887-1989), U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1934-1948. Studebaker was adamant that a healthy democracy required an engaged population, routinely meeting to discuss matters of local and national importance, understanding the facts, and considering solutions to problems in collaboration with their fellow citizens. Photo from the Library of Congress.
Above: Studebaker started his forum idea in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1933, where he was superintendant of schools. Studebaker felt that forums would, among other things, "defeat the power of demagogues, since forums brought ideas into the light for the critical examination, which was fatal to propaganda and demagoguery" (William M. Keith, Democracy as Discussion: Civic Education and the American Forum Movement, Lexington Books, 2007, p. 278). Image from the Library of Congress.
Above: Part of a forum schedule for Des Moines, Iowa, 1934-1935. This is from: John W. Studebaker, The American Way: Democracy at Work in the Des Moines Forums (McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1935, p. 66). Imaged scanned from a personal copy, and used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Above: People interested in attending forums could use this newspaper advertisement to select--or even write in--their preferred topics. This ad was published in the Des Moines Tribune, April 6, 1936. Image from newspaper.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Above: With the assistance of the WPA, the forum idea expanded out from Iowa into various areas of the country. This article excerpt--from the Hinton Daily News (Hinton, West Virginia), December 30, 1935--notes that Monongalia County, West Virginia, was one of the first areas outside of Des Moines to experiment with the Federal Forum Project. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Above: A WPA poster advertising WPA-run forums in New York City. The poster's white area on the left-hand side was probably intended to be written in by hand, according to whatever forum topic, date, and location was coming up. The design of the poster highlights the fact that public meetings and discussions have long been considered important to democracy. Image from the Library of Congress.
Above: The caption for this photograph reads, "Antrim Co., Bellaire, Michigan, 5/26/36, project #5-1-186, citizens of Bellaire village in Antrim Co., are proud of their handsome new town hall completed by WPA." This was one of many town halls that WPA workers constructed across the country. Interestingly, in his book Plain Talk (Washington, DC: National Home Library Foundation, 1936), Studebaker wrote: "In democracy we need to plant centers for public discussion in every rural and urban community. We need a free platform where public issues may be debated as a wind-break against the gusts of emotionalized propaganda" (p. 41, emphasis added). And FDR said: "We need to have meeting places for the discussion of public questions, in the cities, hamlets, and on the farms throughout the length and breadth of the land" (Studebaker, The American Way, 1936, p. 40, emphasis added). The WPA did its part to construct those "centers" and "meeting places." Photo from the National Archives.
Above: Prof. William M. Keith devotes a chapter of his book, Democracy as Discussion (Lexington Books, 2007), to the Federal Forum Project. He notes: "No large-scale system of public forums exists today, and even relatively major attempts (such as the Kettering Foundation's National Issues Forums) do not approach the size or scope of the Federal Forum Project... In its own way, the Federal Forum Project was a mighty accomplishment. While in the end in didn't last, evaporating in the heat of the coming world war, it was intelligently and honestly run, and succeeded on its own terms in providing the opportunity for discussion for millions of Americans" (p. 319). Image scanned from a personal copy, and used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Forums for Education and Democracy
Between January 1936 and June 1941, the New Deal's Federal Forum Project conducted "more than 23,000 forums with a total attendance of more than 2,500,000 people" (Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1941, p. 95).
Today, many people get information and communicate opinions through social media; and while social media has some good aspects, it is often impersonal, error-prone, antagonistic, and too brief to adequately address complex social and economic problems. Would it be more beneficial if we gathered together in town halls or the public square, to learn from subject matter experts (of various political persuasions), and then form ourselves into small groups to discuss solutions to local and national problems? Would we be better informed, and also more respectful of opinions that do not mirror our own?
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