Artist's Statement by Jenny Ryder, Geography & Urban Studies

 

            Across the street from the Communist Party headquarters in mid-twentieth century Philadelphia, there was a Horn & Hardart Automat that Party members frequented on their lunch breaks. The Automat was essentially a vending machine that served hot meals at low prices for an expanding urban workforce.  It was a symbol of industrialization, innovation, and the growth of mass consumer-oriented production. Many a fervent discussion happened over meals at the Horn & Hardart Automat, with Party members sharing ideas for organization to promote class-consciousness and equal rights for all people.

 

            Inside the Automat interpreted here, you'll find a number of recreated artifacts and symbols collected from the vibrant left-wing movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Most of the materials represented here were inspired by or extracted from Noyma Appelbaum's attic archives, which are being donated as a Special Collection to Paley Library here at Temple. This “arsenal” of pamphlets ended up in Noyma's possession as his colleagues grew afraid of their incriminating potential during the McCarthy era of the 1950s. Note the selection from a Tyler student in 1949 on the lunch tables here—a collection of materials detailing the interactions of left-wing students with the Tyler administration and the FBI on campus during this period of anti-democratic political repression. I hope that all the pieces you take out of these little steel doors can rehash the topics of discussion touched upon over lunch at the Automat in Center City during this inspirational working-class movement for democracy and equal rights in the 1930s-50s.

 

            In the face of police brutality political repression, people of the American communist and socialist movements took action for peace and equal rights for all people, by promoting ideas of social justice, integration, and democracy. The Communist Party and the left-wing movement of the 1930s-50s is largely responsible for a multitude of progressive social landmarks over the last century that we take for granted today, like social security, minimum wage, labor unions, women's and civil rights. I hope that twenty-first century Americans can take note of this method of sociopolitical progress—mobilizing the working class people in fighting for positive, incremental goals for the good of all Americans, instead of ignorantly subscribing to vague, over-arching political ideologies.

 

             Listening to the vibrant history of Noyma's life and exploring the history of the American Communist Party has been intriguing, inspirational, and enlightening. As a feminist and advocate for peace, whose grandmother lives off social security and whose mother is a teachers' union leader, I have been profoundly moved by the materials and goals of the American communist/socialist movements in all that they've advocated for in the name of peace, justice, and equality for all oppressed people. In the same vein, I have been utterly baffled by the propaganda and resulting stigma that surrounds these sorts of  powerfully humanistic ideologies in our modern society.