Episodes

Thursday Jul 17, 2025
July 17 - The Port Chicago Disaster
Thursday Jul 17, 2025
Thursday Jul 17, 2025
On this day in Labor History the year was 1944. A crew of mostly black soldiers were loading munitions onto ships at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California, northeast of Oakland. 320 soldiers were killed by a munitions explosion that wounded another 390 people.

Wednesday Jul 16, 2025
July 16 - Mining Racial Divisions Proves Fatal
Wednesday Jul 16, 2025
Wednesday Jul 16, 2025
On this day in Labor History the year was 1894. Striking coal miners in Alabama killed a number of black miners. Both white and black miners were attempting to organize the southern bituminous coal fields during the 1890s.

Tuesday Jul 15, 2025
July 15 - The Execution of John Ball
Tuesday Jul 15, 2025
Tuesday Jul 15, 2025
On this day in Labor History and we are going all the way back to the year of 1381. That was the day John Ball, the leader of the Peasants’ Revolt in England was executed. Due to the plague, the Black Death, in 1348, many peasants had died.

Monday Jul 14, 2025
July 14 - The Great Uprising of 1877
Monday Jul 14, 2025
Monday Jul 14, 2025
On this day in Labor History the year was 1877. That was the day that what would come to be known as the “Great Upheaval” or “Great Uprising” began in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Railroad workers were angry. They had seen their wages cut twice in six months by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Sunday Jul 13, 2025
July 13 - Founding of the Niagara Movement
Sunday Jul 13, 2025
Sunday Jul 13, 2025
On this day in Labor History the year was 1905. That was the day that revolutionary black scholar W.E.B. DuBois helped found the Niagara Movement. It was named for the “mighty current” of change the group hoped to bring about. The initial organizing meeting was held near Niagara Falls, New York.

Saturday Jul 12, 2025
July 12 - The Bisbee Deportation
Saturday Jul 12, 2025
Saturday Jul 12, 2025
On this day in Labor History the year was 1917. That was the day that miners in Bisbee, Arizona were rounded up, taken by train and left in the desert on the New Mexico/Arizona border.

Friday Jul 11, 2025
July 11 - A Mining Boom
Friday Jul 11, 2025
Friday Jul 11, 2025
On this day in Labor History the year was 1892. Striking silver miners in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho blew up the Frisco Mill. The miners were upset because the company had hired Pinkerton guards to infiltrate the mine.

Thursday Jul 10, 2025
July 10 - Disaster in the Mines
Thursday Jul 10, 2025
Thursday Jul 10, 2025
On this day in Labor History the year was 1902. A powerful gas and dust explosion occurred in the Rolling Mill Mine in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Johnstown was rich in coal resources. The coal industry in Cambria County gradually grew thanks to the rise of the industry in the region.

Wednesday Jul 09, 2025
July 9 - Jacqueline Vaughn Leads the CTU
Wednesday Jul 09, 2025
Wednesday Jul 09, 2025
On this day in Labor History the year was1984. Jacqueline Vaughn became President of the Chicago Teachers’ Union. Jacqueline started out as a teacher and became a member of the collective bargaining team in 1968. She was elected Vice President of the CTU in 1972 and then became the first black woman to head up the third largest teacher’s union in the nation.

Tuesday Jul 08, 2025
July 8 - Mother Bloor
Tuesday Jul 08, 2025
Tuesday Jul 08, 2025
On this day in Labor History the year was 1862. Ella Reeves “Mother” Bloor was born in Staten Island, New York.
She was a labor activist who investigated child labor in glass factories and mines.