Labor History in 2:00

January 15 - Deadly Molasses Explosion of 1919

Today in labor history, January 15, 1919 marked one of the strangest industrial disasters in U.S. History.  That winter day in Boston the weather shifted suddenly and temperatures began to rise.  A fifty foot storage container containing 2.3 million gallons of molasses began to make strange noises. 

January 14 - Remembering Julian Bond

Today in labor history, January 14,1940, Julian Bond was born in Nashville Tennessee.  Bond was one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.  He helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, known as “snick.” 

January 13 - The Tompkins Square Riot

On this day in labor history, the year was 1874. What came to be known as the “Tompkin’s Square Riot,” took place in New York City.  The nation was caught in the clutches of the 1873 depression.  Unemployed New Yorkers called for a public works program to put people back to work.

January 12 - Cox’s Army Marches on the Nation’s Capitol

On this day in labor history, the year was 1932, a very unusual army marched on Washington, D.C.  Pro-labor Catholic Priest, Father James Renshaw Cox led the march from Pennsylvania to the Nation’s Capital to demand a public work’s program to put people back to work. 

For more information on Cox's March  

http://web.stanford.edu/group/progressive/cgi-bin/?p=2153

January 11 - The Bread & Roses Strike

Today in labor history, the year was 1912 this historic day marked the beginning of the “Bread and Roses Strike” of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The strike was led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The state Of Massachusetts passed a law reducing the work week for women and children from 56 to 54 hours. 

January 10 - Honoring Joe Hill

Today in labor history, January 10, 1914, two men were killed during a grocery store robbery in Utah. Their murders were blamed on Joe Hill a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World, or the IWW, also known as the Wobblies.

January 9 - Southern Tenant Farmers Line Missouri Highways

Yet farm workers have played an important, and often overlooked role in labor history.  Such was the case today in labor history, January 9, 1939. That was the day more than 1,500 Missouri farmers and their families began a “highway sit in.”

January 8 - The German Coast Uprising of 1811

Often significant days in history pass with little attention. Today in labor history, January 8, 1811, is one such day.  On that day Charles Deslonde, an enslaved sugar laborer in the New Orleans territory led what became one of the largest slave revolts in American history.  

January 7 - Semana Trágica

Today in labor history, January 7, 1919 began what is known as Semana Trágica, or Tragic Week in Argentina.  Labor unrest had been mounting in Buenos Aries.  On January 7, police killed four workers who were striking for better conditions at an ironworks plant.  

January 6 - Remembering Carl Sandburg

Today in labor history, January 6, 1878, is the birthday of renowned Illinois poet Carl Sandburg.  He was born to Swedish immigrants in Galesburg, Illinois. Later Sandburg worked as an editorial writer at the Chicago Daily News. He was part of a group of poets and novelists, known as the “Chicago Literary Renaissance.” Sandburg became most well-known for his poetry, which won two Pulitzer Prizes.  He also won a third Pulitzer for his biography of his hero Abraham Lincoln.  Sandburg’s poems often evoked images and explored themes of the industrialized United States.  This was especially true of his 1920 volume, Smoke and Steel.  In this collection Sandburg wrote about workers in Gary, Indiana and farmers around Omaha, Nebraska.  He wrote about railroad workers and steel workers.  His words instilled unexpected beauty in these industrial scenes.  Sandburg wrote in free verse, a style that did not rhyme.  He used accessible language in his poems, making them available to the “common man.”  He would take short tours around the U.S. reading his poems and playing folk songs on guitar.  His poems gained a wide, popular readership.  The opening lines of his poem “Chicago,” so captured the workers and spirit of the city, these words remain indelibly entwined in the city’s image:  “Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.”