Labor History in 2:00

January 18 - Remembering Mary Kenney O’Sullivan

Today in labor history, January 18, 1943 marks the death of the first woman general organizer appointed by the American Federation of Labor. Mary Kenney O'Sullivan was born the only child of working-class Irish immigrants, in Hannibal, Missouri.  

January 17 - Solidarity Forever

Today in labor history, January 17, 1915, the most popular labor song in the United States was completed in Chicago.  Ralph Chaplin, an Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) activist, artist and writer was in town for a demonstration against hunger.  He finished writing “Solidarity Forever,” a song he had started working on the year before at a Miner’s strike in West Virginia.  

January 16 - Palmer Raids Victims Win Right to Legal Counsel

Today in labor history, January 16, 1920 thousands of immigrant detainees and labor activists won the basic constitutional right to consult with an attorney.  These detainees were victims of the infamous Palmer Raids.  

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.”