Labor History in 2:00

May 12 - The March to Stomp Out Poverty

On this day in Labor History the year was 1968. It was mother’s day. Coretta Scott King, the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a group of thousands of women in a demonstration in Washington D.C.  

May 11 - In the Streets of Pullman

On this day in Labor History the year was 1894. It was the first day of the Pullman Strike.  

May 10 - Done!

On this day in Labor History the year was 1869. At 2:47 pm a one-word telegram was sent from Promontory Summit, Utah.  The message read simply, “done.”  

May 9 - Remembering Walter Reuther

On this day in Labor History the year was 1970.   On that day workers and the US labor movement lost a leading voice in a tragic plane crash. 

May 8 - Getting the Rails in Line

If you are a member of a union, how well do you know your union’s history? You might be surprised to find out how far back that history goes. Such is the case with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. 

May 7 - The Order of the Knights of St. Crispin

On this day in Labor History the year was 1867. That was the day that shoemakers founded the labor union the Knights of St. Crispin, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  St. Crispin is the patron saint of cobblers.

May 6 - Fighting for Justice on Tobacco Road

On this day in Labor History the year was 1937.  That was the year that 400 black women who worked as tobacco stemmers walked off the job at I.N. Vaughn and Company in Richmond, VA. 

May 5 - Founding of the Printers Voice

On this day in Labor History the year was 1852. It was the last day of a three-day convention held in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Printers who worked for newspapers and other publications from fourteen cities had converged to decide if they wanted to form a union.  

May 4 - The Haymarket Incident

On this day in Labor History the year was 1886. This was one of the most significant days in US labor history. 

A mass meeting of workers was called for that night in Chicago’s Haymarket Square.  

May 3 - Blood in the Streets for the Eight Hour Day

On this day in Labor History the year was 1886. A little after three o’clock on that Monday, in Chicago, radical labor activist and newspaper man August Spies climbed onto a box car to give a speech about the fight for the eight hour day.