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John Brophy speaking at a labor Chautauqua, Six Mile Run, PA, in the summer of 1924.
Credit: Courtesy of The Catholic University of America, Department of Archives, Manuscripts, and Museum Collections, http://libraries.cua.edu
In 1922 John Brophy had District 2 of the UMWA create a fund to support worker education. After running popular classes through District 2"s educational department, Brophy then initiated labor Chautauquas, which staged week-long programs of entertainment, lectures, and discussion of public issues, in larger mining towns. The programs helped build worker morale and improve their understanding of the problems they were all facing.