There is a significant omission in the literature concerning the historical origins of the community college and the social and educational forces that have shaped its mission. Rigorous historical studies are relatively rare in higher education. For community colleges, analytical histories are even less common (Ratcliff, 1987; Frye, 1991, 1992). This study is a multidisciplinary historical analysis of the national junior-community college mission debate in the twentieth century. It combines fresh historical research with organization theory and consensus social movement theory to clarify and contextualize the community college mission and organizational behavior. The study explains the mission as an historically contingent social and educational process driven by a complex interaction of environmental pressures, institutional structure, organizational culture, and community and student demands.