1937 Memorial Day massacre

Last updated
Memorial Day massacre of 1937
Part of Little Steel strike
Photograph titled "The Chicago Memorial Day Incident" - NARA - 306197.jpg
The Chicago Memorial Day Incident, photograph from the papers of the La Follette Committee
DateMay 30, 1937
Location
Chicago, Illinois, United States

41°40′58″N87°32′24″W / 41.682895°N 87.539912°W / 41.682895; -87.539912
Parties
Lead figures
Casualties and losses
Deaths: 10
Wounded: 67+
Deaths: 0
Location map United States Chicago.png
Red pog.svg
Location within Greater Chicago

In the Memorial Day massacre of 1937, the Chicago Police Department shot and killed ten unarmed demonstrators in Chicago, on May 30, 1937. The incident took place during the Little Steel strike in the United States.

Contents

Background

The incident arose after U.S. Steel signed a union contract but smaller steel manufacturers (called 'Little Steel'), including Republic Steel, refused to do so. In protest, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) called a strike.

Incident

Victim of Chicago steel strike riot. Washington D.C. June 30. Attending today's hearing of the Senate Civil Liberties Committee, Harry Harper of Chicago, claims he was a vicitim of the LCCN2016871938.jpg
A victim of the incident waits to testify before the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee of the U.S. Senate (June 30, 1937)
Senate Civil Liberties Hearing. Washington, D.C., July 2. The Senate Civil Liberties Committee played to a full house today as they screened the moves of the Memorial Day Chicago riot at the LCCN2016871947.jpg
Paramount News footage of the 1937 Memorial Day massacre screens before the La Follette Committee (July 2, 1937)
Defends Chicago police in strike riot tactics. Washington, D.C., June 30. Testifying before the Civil Liberties Committee today, Capt. John C. Prendergast chief of the uniformed force of the LCCN2016877934.jpg
Chicago police defend their riot tactics at a hearing before the La Follette Committee (June 30, 1937)
Testimony of Chicago cop climaxes stormy session of Civil Liberties Committee. Washington D.C. July 1. Testimony of Sergt. Lawrence Lyons, Chicago police officer in charge of one of the LCCN2016871945.jpg
A Chicago police sergeant clashes with chairman Robert M. La Follette Jr. during testimony before the Senate Civil Liberties Committee (July 1, 1937)

On Memorial Day 1937, unionists, their families and sympathisers gathered at Sam's Place, a former tavern and dance hall at 113th Street and Green Bay Avenue, that served as the headquarters of the SWOC. [1] [2] There was an outdoor picnic lunch, speakers, and songs, and some estimate the crowd was between 1,500 to 2,500 including picketers and their families, strike sympathizers, and curious passersby. [1] The crowd began to march across the prairie towards the Republic Steel mill to picket, but a line of roughly 300 Chicago policemen blocked their path. [3] The foremost protestors argued their right to continue. [4] The police fired on the crowd.[ citation needed ] As the crowd fled, police shot and killed ten people, four dying that day and six others subsequently from their injuries. Nine people were permanently disabled and another 28 had serious head injuries from police clubbing.

Dorothy Day, who was present, wrote: "On Memorial Day, May 30, 1937, police opened fire on a parade of striking steel workers and their families at the gate of the Republic Steel Company, in South Chicago. Fifty people were shot, of whom 10 later died; 100 others were beaten with clubs." [5]

Fatalities

Ten union demonstrators were killed: [6] [7] [8] [9]

Media coverage

In the wake of the massacre, newsreel footage of the event was suppressed for fear of creating, in the words of an official at Paramount News agency, "mass hysteria." Initial news coverage of the event instead framed the crowd as a violent threat to social order, arguing that police merely acted in self-defense. Still photographs were published in major newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune along with captions such as: "At the Height of the Battle--Here are policemen using their nightsticks and tear gas to subdue the attackers." [10] Paramount did release edited clips from the newsreel footage of the massacre that portray the crowd as threatening and riotous.

Civil rights investigation

Legacy

Years later, one of the protesters, Mollie West, recalled a policeman yelling to her that day, "Get off the field or I'll put a bullet in your back." No policemen were ever prosecuted.

A Coroner's Jury declared the killings to be "justifiable homicide". The press often called it a labor or red riot. President Franklin Roosevelt responded to a union plea, "The majority of people are saying just one thing, ‘A plague on both your houses’". [11]

A memorial plaque at the base of a flagpole with the names of the 10 people who were killed is located at 11731 South Avenue O, the former United Steel Workers Local 1033 union hall, which is now occupied by the United Auto Workers Local 3212. Thirty years to the day of the massacre, it was dedicated on May 30, 1967. As of November of 2021, the flagpole base with plaque is still at the Avenue O location, but the flagpole is missing. The United Steel Workers/ United Auto Workers building at the site is occupied by someone, but there was no signage anywhere.

The Republic Steel Memorial Day Massacre Sculpture, created by former Republic Steel employee Edward Blazak, was dedicated in 1981. Originally located near the main gate at 116th Street and Burley Avenue, it was rededicated in 2008 and relocated to 11659 South Avenue O, at the southwest corner of the grounds of a Chicago Fire Department station housing Engine #104. [12]

See also

Bibliography

Primary sources

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 Quirke, Carol (2008). "Reframing Chicago's Memorial Day Massacre, May 30, 1937". American Quarterly. 60 (1): 129–157. doi:10.1353/aq.2008.0009. JSTOR   40068502. S2CID   144193808 – via J-Stor.
  2. ↑ Dennis, Michael (2010). The Memorial Day Massacre and the Movement for Industrial Democracy. New York, New York: Springer. p. 115. ISBN   978-0-23-011472-2.
  3. ↑ Quirke, Carol (2008). "Reframing Chicago's Memorial Day Massacre, May 30, 1937". American Quarterly. 60 (1): 129–157. doi:10.1353/aq.2008.0009. ISSN   0003-0678. JSTOR   40068502. S2CID   144193808.
  4. ↑ The American Century, Harold Evans, Jonathan Cape, London, 1998 p. 278
  5. ↑ Dorothy Day, Selected Writings
  6. ↑ White, Ahmed (2016). The Last Great Strike: Little Steel, the CIO, and the Struggle for Labor Rights in New Deal America. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. p. 143. ISBN   978-0-52-028561-3.
  7. ↑ Marshall, Scott (June 6, 2018). "District 7 SOAR holds Annual Commemoration of 1937 Republic Steel Memorial Day Massacre". United Steelworkers . Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  8. ↑ Dennis, Michael (2014). Blood on Steel: Chicago Steelworkers and the Strike of 1937. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 59. ISBN   978-1-42-141018-0.
  9. ↑ Avila, Larry (December 10, 2017). "2007 Legends inductees 'Memorial Day Massacre' victims". The Times of Northwest Indiana . Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  10. ↑ Quirke, Carol (2008). "Reframing Chicago's Memorial Day Massacre, May 30, 1937". American Quarterly. 60 (1): 129–157. doi:10.1353/aq.2008.0009. ISSN   0003-0678. JSTOR   40068502. S2CID   144193808.
  11. ↑ The American Century, Harold Evans, Jonathan Cape, London, 1998 p. 279
  12. ↑ "Memorial Day Massacre". Illinois Labor History Society. 22 January 2016. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
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