The first half century of the Council of the East Midlands District of the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) is reviewed, beginning with the early WEA and other antecedent adult programs in the Midlands. The rapid growth in tutorial classes and other liberal studies programs during 1919-29, continued expansion during the years of the Depression and World War II, the overshadowing of tutorial classes by other program types in later years, recent trends toward a better educated, more middle-class clientele, and relationships with the University of Nottingham and University College, Leicester, are documented, together with shifting patterns of educational interest and subject content as affected by the larger society. It is concluded that, despite chronic money and manpower shortages from 1919 to the present, the East Midlands District Council has steadily expanded its classes and course offerings, adapted to meet the changing needs of a growing public, and exerted a liberalizing influence within its territory, especially on educational thought and action. The document includes 12 tables, and index, chapter notes and references, and a staff roster. (ly)