Early 20th Century
American anarchism established itself at the turn of the century by adapting European anarchist thought to suit American interests in individualism and outlaws. Within the Gilded Age, Americans like Benjamin Tucker and Emma Goldman prolifically drew attention to the widespread social problems their contemporaries chose to overlook and advocated for the truly and liberatively pluralistic America of the American Dream. Detroit area anarchists like Jo Labadie, Voltairine de Cleyre, and Agnes Inglis established Detroit as a significant locale for the new American anarchism by engaging with their more famous fellow anarchists and committing themselves to producing, interpreting, and preserving anarchist thought, most often by archiving ephemera. They also presaged many criticisms of the auto industry that were unthinkable for many through most of the 20th century but are now relatively commonplace.
Joseph A. Labadie Collection
Jo Labadie, the Gentle Anarchist of Detroit, earned his title even if only for his commitment to propaganda by the word. Labadie was a printer, photographer, writer, activist, and archivist who kept excellent records for his Detroit and anarchist communities. Labadie entered anarchism through individualist Benjamin Tucker, who had still then only recently started making a name for himself by publishing major European anarchist works for American audiences. With significant help from Agnes Inglis, Labadie’s collection became the foundation of the University of Michigan’s exceptional collection of anarchist ephemera. Ted Kaczynski (aka the Unabomber) sent bombs to the same campus but nonetheless donated his ephemera to it because the Labadie Collection proved that the institution was a responsible custodian of such materials.
Voltairine De Cleyre Papers, 1876-1914
Like Labadie, de Cleyre was born further north in Michigan but eventually came to be an internationally renowned Detroit anarchist through her engagement with anarchism (still also known as libertarian socialism) at the turn of the century. Unlike contemporaries like Labadie, Inglis, and Goldman, de Cleyre was raised in a radical family of socialists and freethinkers from which she still starkly disidentified in her anarchism. Also unlike those contemporaries, de Cleyre’s troubled life prevented her from living to old age, maintaining a sprawling collection of ephemera, or otherwise taking an authorial role in her own legacy. Like her contemporary in Chicago Lucy Parsons, she was even marginalized in part by Goldman, who spoke on multiple occasions against more poetic anarchisms. Like Labadie’s son Laurance, de Cleyre did not leaven her anarchism and can therefore be seen as especially prescient for offering an anarchism as pessimistic as later national and international events would seem to demand.
Agnes Inglis Papers 1909-1952
Like Jo Labadie, Agnes Inglis is known to us now in large part for dedicating her life to the production, interpretation, and custodianship of knowledge with a primary focus on anarchism. While other anarchists of her generation would eventually fall into obscurity, her meticulous archival labor allowed records of her and many of her compatriots’ activities to be accepted by the University of Michigan and thereby establish the university as a singular resource for radical history. Also like Labadie, she was particularly esteemed in her time for affording her labor and expertise to communities beyond anarchism, documenting more regional and local histories than other sources in doing so.
