Date
|
Location
|
Industry
|
Type of
dispute
|
Workers
violently killed by authorities
|
Notes
|
July 20, 1877
|
Baltimore, MD
|
railroad
|
strike
|
10
|
During the Great Railroad
Strike of 1877, first national strike in United States, National
Guard regiments were ordered to Cumberland, Maryland,
to face strikers. As they marched toward their train in Baltimore, violent
street battles between the striking workers and the guardsmen erupted. Troops
fired on the crowd, killing 10 and wounding 25.[7]
|
July 21–22, 1877
|
Pittsburgh, PA
|
railroad
|
strike
|
40
|
Great Railroad
Strike of 1877: As militiamen approached and sought to protect the
roundhouse, they bayoneted and fired on rock-throwing strikers, killing 20
people and wounding 29.[8] The next day, the militia mounted an
assault on the strikers, shooting their way out of the roundhouse and killing
20 more people.
|
July 21–28, 1877
|
East St. Louis, IL and St. Louis, MO
|
railroad,
then general
|
strike
|
as many as
18 or more
|
1877 St. Louis
general strike part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877: The
first general strike in the United States was ended when 3000 federal troops
and 5000 deputized police had killed at least 18 people in skirmishes around
the city.
|
July 23, 1877
|
Reading, PA
|
railroad
|
strike
|
10
|
In the Reading Railroad
massacre, part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, a unit of the
Pennsylvania State
Police ventured into the Seventh Street Cut (a man-made railway
ravine) to address a train disabled by rioters. They were bombarded from
above with bricks and stones, harassed, and finally they fired a rifle volley
into the crowd at the far end, killing ten.[9][10]
|
July 25–26, 1877
|
Chicago, IL
|
railroad
|
strike
|
30
|
Battle of the Viaduct,
part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877: Violence erupted between a crowd
and police, federal troops, and state militia at the Halsted Street Viaduct.
When it ended, 30 were dead.[11]
|
1877
|
Philadelphia, PA
|
railroad
|
strike
|
20–30
|
Great Railroad
Strike of 1877: 30–70 injured in addition to those killed[14][unreliable
source?]
|
May 5, 1886
|
Milwaukee, WI
|
building
trades
|
strike
|
15
|
Bay View Massacre:
As protesters chanted for an 8-hour workday, 250 state militia were ordered
to shoot into the crowd as it approached the iron rolling mill at Bay View,
leaving 7 dead at the scene, including a 13-year-old boy. The Milwaukee
Journal reported that eight more died within 24 hours.
|
November 5, 1887
|
Pattersonville, LA
|
sugar
|
strike
|
as many as
20
|
10,000 sugar workers (90% of whom were black), organized by the Knights of Labor, went on strike. A battalion
of national guardsmen supporting a sheriff's posse massacred as many as 20
people in the black village of Pattersonville, St. Mary Parish,
Louisiana.[17]
|
November 23, 1887
|
Thibodaux, LA
|
sugar
|
strike
|
37 or more
estimated
|
Thibodaux Massacre:
Louisiana Militia, aided by bands of prominent citizens, shot at least 35
unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage and lynched
two strike leaders. "No credible official count of the victims was ever
made; bodies continued to turn up in shallow graves outside of town for weeks
to come."[18]
|
July 7, 1894
|
Chicago, IL
|
railroad
|
strike
|
30 or more
estimated
|
Pullman Strike: An
attempt by Eugene V. Debs to
unionize the Pullman railroad car company in suburban Chicago developed into
a strike on May 10, 1894. Other unions were drawn in. On June 26 a national
rail strike of 125,000 workers paralyzed traffic in 27 states for weeks. By
July 3 a mob peaking at perhaps 10,000 had gathered near the shoreline in
south Chicago embarking on several straight days of vandalism and violence,
burning switchyards and hundreds of railroad cars. Thousands of federal
troops and deputy marshals were inserted over the governor's protests and
clashed with rioters. The strike dissolved by August 2. Debs biographer Ray Ginger calculated thirty people killed in
Chicago alone.[24] Historian David Ray Papke, building
on the work of Almont Lindsey published in 1942, estimated another 40 killed
in other states.[25] Property damage exceeded $80
million.[26]
|
1896–1897
|
Leadville, CO
|
silver
mining
|
strike
|
as many as
11
|
Leadville Miners'
strike: The union asked for a wage increase of 50 cents-per-day
for those making less than $3-per-day, to restore a 50-cent cut imposed in
1893. The county sheriff and his deputies supported the strikers. Leadville
city police took the side of the mine owners, recruited new officers from
Denver, and "apparently kept up a near-constant campaign of harassment
and violence against union members throughout the strike." As many as
six union men were killed during the strike, by strikebreakers, police, or
under mysterious circumstances. Four more union men died when they joined
about 50 strikers in a nighttime rifle and dynamite attack on the Coronado
and Emmett mines; the attackers burned the Coronado shafthouse and killed a
firefighter trying to extinguish the blaze.[27]
|
September 10, 1897
|
Lattimer, PA
|
coal
mining
|
strike
|
19
|
Lattimer Massacre:
19 unarmed striking Polish, Lithuanian and Slovak coal miners were killed and
36 wounded by the Luzerne County sheriff’s posse for refusing to disperse
during a peaceful march. Most were shot in the back.
|
April 7–July, 1905
|
Chicago, IL
|
garment
mfg., teamsters
|
strike
|
as many as
21
|
1905 Chicago
Teamsters' strike: Riots erupted on April 7 and continued almost
daily until mid-July. Sometimes thousands of striking workers would clash
with strikebreakers and armed police each day. By late July, when the strike
ended, 21 people had been killed and a total of 416 injured.[40][41][42]
|
April 18, 1912–July 1913
|
Kanawha County, WV
|
coal
mining
|
strike
|
up to 50
violent deaths (estimated)
|
Paint Creek Mine War:
a confrontation between striking coal miners and coal operators in Kanawha
County, West Virginia, centered on the area between two streams, Paint Creek
and Cabin Creek.[58] 12 miners were killed on July 26,
1912 at Mucklow. On February 7, 1913, the county sheriff’s posse attacked the
Holly Grove miners’ camp with machine guns, killing striker Cesco Estep. Many
more than 50 deaths among miners and their families were indirectly caused,
as a result of starvation and malnutrition.[59]
|
1913–14
|
Area from Trinidad to Walsenburg, southern CO
|
coal
mining
|
strike
|
up to 47
estimated (in addition to Ludlow)
|
Amid escalating violence in the coalfields and pressure from mine
operators, the governor called out the National Guard, which arrived at the
mining towns in October 1913. After the Ludlow Massacre in April 1914, for ten days
striking miners at the other tent colonies went to war. They attacked and
destroyed mines, fighting pitched battles with mine guards and militia along
a 40-mile front from Trinidad to Walsenburg. The strike ended in defeat for
the UMWA in December 1914.
|
April 20, 1914
|
Ludlow, CO
|
mining
|
strike
|
5 (plus 2
women, 12 children)
|
Ludlow Massacre:
On Greek Easter morning, 177 company guards engaged by John D.
Rockefeller, Jr. and other mine operators, and sworn into the
State Militia just for the occasion, attacked a union tent camp with machine
guns, then set it afire. Luka Vahernik, 50, was shot in the head. Louis Tikas and two other miners were captured,
shot and killed by the militia. 5 miners, 2 women and 12 children in total died
in the attack.
|
1919
|
several
|
steel
|
strike
|
18
|
Steel Strike of 1919:
18 strikers were killed, hundreds seriously injured, and thousands jailed
over the course of the strike.[68]p. 247
|
1920
|
Walker County, Alabama
|
coal
mining
|
strike
|
at least
16
|
1920 Alabama coal
strike: The Alabama miners' strike was a statewide strike of the UMWA
against coal mine operators. On December 23, 1920, local union official
Adrian Northcutt of Nauvo was summoned out of his home by soldiers of Company
M of the Alabama Guard, who fired 7 shots, killing him.[64]p. 9
|
August 25–Sept. 2, 1921
|
Logan County, WV
|
coal
mining
|
strike,
organizing
|
50–100
|
Battle of Blair
Mountain: the largest labor uprising in United States history and
the largest organized armed uprising since the American Civil War. During an
attempt by the miners to unionize, and following the murder of Sid Hatfield, 10,000 armed coal miners
confronted 3000 lawmen and Baldwin-Felts strikebreakers, who were backed
by coal mine operators. In the summer of 1921 in Mingo County,
hundreds of miners were arrested without habeas corpus and other basic legal rights.
Talk spread of a march to free those confined miners, end martial law, and
organize the county. In Kanawha County,
up to 13,000 miners gathered and began marching toward Logan County
on August 24. The reviled anti-union sheriff of Logan County, Don Chafin[79] set up defenses on Blair Mountain,
with the nation's largest private armed force of 2000. By August 29, battle
was fully joined. Chafin's men, though outnumbered, had the advantage of
higher positions and better weaponry. Private hired planes dropped homemade
bombs on the miners near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair. Army
bombers were used for aerial surveillance. Sporadic gun battles continued for
a week. Up to 30 deaths were reported by Chafin's side and 50–100 on the
union miners' side, with hundreds more injured. On September 2, federal
troops arrived by presidential order, and the miners started heading home the
next day. About one million rounds were fired in the battle.[80]
|
June 22, 1922
|
Herrin, IL
|
coal
mining
|
strike
|
22
|
Herrin Massacre:
Several hundred armed UMWA strikers laid siege to a nonunion mine. After an
afternoon of gunfire by both sides, three of the besieging strikers were dead
or mortally wounded. The next morning, the approximately 50 strikebreakers
agreed to surrender their arms in exchange for a guarantee of safe passage
out of the county. After the disarmed strikebreakers left the mine, 19 were
killed by the strikers in various ways; some were killed in the town
cemetery, in front of a crowd of about 1,000 cheering townspeople. Some were
tied up and repeatedly shot at close range; some had their throats slit.[81][82][83]
|
September 9, 1924
|
Hanapēpē, Kauaʻi, HI
|
sugar
|
strike
|
16
|
Hanapēpē massacre:
Sixteen striking Filipino sugar workers on the Hawaiʻi island of Kauaʻi were
killed by police; four police also died. Many of the surviving strikers were
jailed, then deported.[85]
|
1931–1939
|
Harlan County, KY
|
coal
mining
|
various
|
13
|
The Harlan County War
was a violent, nearly decade-long conflict between miners and mine operators
who adamantly resisted unionization. It consisted of skirmishes, executions,
bombings, and strikes. The incidents involved coal miners and union
organizers on one side and coal firms and law enforcement officials on the
other.[88] Before its conclusion, state and
federal troops would occupy the county more than half a dozen times.[89]
|
May 30, 1937
|
Chicago, IL
|
steel
|
strike
|
10
|
Little Steel strike
at Republic Steel:
Police opened fire, killing 10 protestors in the Memorial Day
massacre of 1937.
|
EXECUTION BY THE STATE
Date
|
Location
|
Type of
dispute
|
Workers
executed by the State
|
Notes
|
June 21, 1877 – October 9, 1879[109]
|
Pennsylvania (Pottsville, Mauch Chunk, Bloomsburg, Sunbury)
|
coal
mining strike
|
20
|
A 20% pay cut in December, 1874, led to a long strike that began on
January 1, 1875,[110]p. 51 and quickly turned
violent. Several company bosses were killed. Bodies of militant miners were
sometimes found in deserted mine shafts.[110]p. 53 20 workers (suspected Molly Maguires)[111]pp. 5,10 were tried for murder
and convicted largely on testimony of a Pinkerton
spy.[111]pp. 234–35[112] Three of the defendants confessed:
Manus Cull, Francis McHugh, and Patrick Butler, as did Molly Maguire member
“Powder Keg” Kerrigan. Their confessions and testimony corroborated that of
Pinkerton agent McParlan. Historians have written that the murder charge
against John Keyhoe, the subject of a later trial, remains dubious.[113] Franklin B. Gowen,
owner of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and the person who hired
Pinkerton, had himself appointed special prosecutor.[110]p. 54[114] The 20 men were hanged by the State
of Pennsylvania.
"The Molly Maguire trials were a surrender
of state sovereignty. A private corporation initiated the investigation
through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the
alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted
them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows. ... Any
objective study of the tenor of the times and the entire record must conclude
that (the Mollies) ... did not have fair and impartial juries. They were,
therefore, denied one of the fundamental rights that William Penn guaranteed to all of
Pennsylvania’s citizens."[115]
Following an investigation 100 years after his death, John Kehoe was
posthumously pardoned by the governor, who
wrote, "[I]t is impossible for us to imagine the plight of the 19th
Century miners in Pennsylvania's anthracite region. ... We can be proud of
the men known as the Molly Maguires",[112] whom he praised as "these
martyred men of labor".[111]p. 284
|
BY VIGILANTES, MOBS, AND HATE GROUPS
Date
|
Location
|
Industry
|
Type of
dispute
|
Workers*
killed by vigilante/mob
|
Notes
|
September 2, 1885
|
Rock Springs, WY
|
coal
mining
|
wage
dispute, race
|
28 or more
|
Rock Springs massacre:
A riot between Chinese immigrant miners and white immigrant miners resulted
from a labor dispute over the Union Pacific
Coal Department's policy of preferentially hiring Chinese miners
and paying them lower wages than white miners. Racial tensions were a factor
in the massacre. When the rioting ended, at least 28 Chinese miners were dead
and 15 were injured.
|
September 25, 1891
|
Lee County, AR
|
cotton
|
strike
|
18
|
African-American cotton pickers organized and went on strike in Lee County, Arkansas
for higher wages. Strikers killed two nonstriking cotton pickers on September
25, and killed a plantation manager three days later. In retaliation, a white
mob killed 15 strikers, most of them by lynching.[123][124]
|
1902
|
Hazleton, PA
|
coal
mining
|
strike
|
14
|
14 strikers killed, 42 badly injured, at anthracite strike near
Hazleton, PA[127]
|
December 24, 1913
|
Red Jacket, MI
|
copper
mining
|
strike
|
11 (plus
62 children)
|
Italian Hall disaster:
As the Copper
Country strike of 1913–1914 dragged on into the cold of December,
the hatred on both sides grew.[64]p. 326 Anna Klobuchar
Clemenc and the Women's Auxiliary of the Western Federation
of Miners organized a Christmas-Eve party for strikers and their
families. The hall was packed with 400 to 500 people when someone shouted
"fire". There was no fire, but 73 people, 62 of them children, were
crushed to death trying to escape.
|
September 30, 1919
|
Elaine, AR
|
agriculture
|
organizing
|
up to 100
or more
|
African-American farmers met to establish the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America
to fight for better pay and higher cotton prices. They were shot at by a
group of whites and returned the fire. News of the confrontation spread and
the Elaine race riot
ensued, leaving at least 100 blacks dead.[137]
|
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