ABSTRACT
In December 1945, a group of children gathered for a reunion of Camp Wo-Chi-Ca (Workers’ Children’s Camp), a New Jersey summer camp with ties to the Communist Party (CP). While renewing friendships forged during the previous summer, the youngsters explored the possibilities for the postwar United States by imagining their “World of Tomorrow.” Their vision was a place fi lled with “houses straight and tall,” where “Health is not bought with money,” “Schools are free for all people,” and “Brown and white people go hand in hand [s]haring the fruits of the people’s struggles.” This utopia was a distinctly urban vision, simultaneously titled the “City of Tomorrow.” In their city, “the Ghettos and Chinatowns and Harlems” would disappear, to be replaced by equal housing regardless of class, race, or ethnicity. “In order to help carry out these beliefs,” the youngsters declared, “we pledge ourselves to keep racial equality in our camp and to try to spread the idea of racial equality wherever we go.” The ex-campers’ idealism so moved Wo-Chi-Ca administrators that they made the World of Tomorrow part of the camp’s offi cial credo. The youngsters’ critique of racial capitalism captured the spirit of a fl eeting alliance between the labor movement, civil rights activists, and leftwing political organizations during and immediately after World War II.1
