MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today In Labor History April 4, 1968: James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King at the Lorraine Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee. King was in Memphis to support the sanitation workers’ strike that had started in February, 1968, for better working conditions and higher pay. The strike began 2 weeks after 2 workers were crushed to death when their truck malfunctioned, intensifying the already high level of frustration and anger over working conditions and safety. King led a protest march on March 28. Over 20,000 kids cut class to join the demonstration. Some members of the march began smashing downtown windows and looting. The cops intervened with mace, tear gas, clubs and live gunfire, killing 16-year-old Larry Paine, who had his hands in the air when he was shot. On April 3, one day before his assassination, King gave his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CivilRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CivilRights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MartinLutherKing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MartinLutherKing</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/assassination" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>assassination</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mlk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>mlk</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/memphis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>memphis</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/union" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>union</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/strike" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>strike</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/police" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>police</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/policebrutality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>policebrutality</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/policemurder" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>policemurder</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/capitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>capitalism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/students" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>students</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/kids" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>kids</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
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MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today In Labor History March 27, 1866: President of the United States of America Andrew Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. However, Congress overrode his veto and passed the bill, the first time this had occurred over any major legislation. The bill was the first in the U.S. to define citizenship, and to affirm equal rights under the law for all citizens, including African Americans. Johnson’s rationale for the veto was that the law “discriminated” against whites in favor of blacks. </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/slavery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>slavery</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/reconstruction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>reconstruction</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/civilrights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>civilrights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/whitesupremacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>whitesupremacy</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/potus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>potus</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/congress" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>congress</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/veto" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>veto</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/andrewjohnson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>andrewjohnson</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History March 25, 1931: The authorities arrested the Scottsboro Boys in Alabama and charged them with rape. The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American youths, ages 13 to 20, falsely accused of raping two white women. A lynch mob tried to murder them before they had even been indicted. All-white juries convicted each of them. Several judges gave death sentences, a common practice in Alabama at the time for black men convicted of raping white women. The Communist Party and the NAACP fought to get the cases appealed and retried. Finally, after numerous retrials and years in harsh prisons, four of the Scottsboro Boys were acquitted and released. The other five were got sentences ranging from 75 years to death. All were released or escaped by 1946. Poet and playwright Langston Hughes wrote it in his work Scottsboro Limited. And Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son was influenced by the case.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/scottsboroboys" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>scottsboroboys</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/lynching" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>lynching</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/rape" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rape</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/prison" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>prison</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/langstonhughes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>langstonhughes</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/richardwright" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>richardwright</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/novel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>novel</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/naacp" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>naacp</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/communism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>communism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>books</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/alabama" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>alabama</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookstadon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bookstadon</span></a></span></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History March 21, 1946: The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington, the first professional African American football player in the U.S. since 1933. His father played baseball in the negro leagues. His uncle was the first black lieutenant in the LAPD. In college, he played both baseball and football. He was a teammate of Jackie Robinson’s at UCLA. Many people thought he was a better baseball player than Robinson. Leo Durocher supposedly offered him a contract to play major league baseball, but only if he played in Puerto Rico first, which Washington refused to do.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nfl" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>nfl</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LARams" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LARams</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/KennyWashington" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>KennyWashington</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JackieRobinson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>JackieRobinson</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/lapd" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>lapd</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mlb" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>mlb</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ucla" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ucla</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/football" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>football</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/baseball" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>baseball</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History March 21, 1960: South African police opened fire on peaceful black protesters, killing 69 and wounding 180 in the Sharpeville massacre. Many were shot in the back as they fled. Thousands had been out protesting the hated pass laws, when they decided to march on the police station. The town of Sharpeville had high unemployment and poverty. Its residents had been forcibly moved there from the neighboring town of Topville in 1958. Passbooks were used by the Apartheid regime to control the movement of black residents and to enforce segregation.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/apartheid" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>apartheid</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SouthAfrica" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SouthAfrica</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Sharpeville" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Sharpeville</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/massacre" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>massacre</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/unemployment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>unemployment</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/poverty" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>poverty</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History March 21, 1965: 3,200 people began the third march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest racial violence. Earlier efforts to hold the march had failed when police attacked demonstrators and a minister was fatally beaten by a group of Selma whites. The five-day walk ended March 26, when 20,000 people joined the marchers in front of the Alabama state Capitol in Montgomery. This time they were defended by national guards and FBI agents. Soon after, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingClass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingClass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/civilrights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>civilrights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MartinLutherKing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MartinLutherKing</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JimCrow" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>JimCrow</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/fbi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fbi</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/votingrights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>votingrights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/selma" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>selma</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/montgomery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>montgomery</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/alabama" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>alabama</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/policebrutality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>policebrutality</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/police" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>police</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History March 20, 2000: Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, was arrested for murdering a Georgia sheriff’s deputy. Al-Amin had been a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panthers. He once said that “violence is as American as cherry pie.” Al-Amin denied shooting the deputy. His fingerprints were not found on the murder weapon. He had no gunshot wounds, though officers who were present at the shootout claimed that the suspect had been hit and wounded. Another man, Otis Jackson, later confessed to being the shooter, but the authorities have repeatedly denied Al-Amin’s requests for a retrial. He is now serving a life sentence. He had been at Florence supermax, under a gag order preventing interviews with journalists. In 2014, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He is now at the U.S. Penitentiary, Tucson. In April 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal from al-Amin.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/blackpanthers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blackpanthers</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sncc" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>sncc</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HRapBrown" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HRapBrown</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/prison" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>prison</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/cancer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cancer</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/journalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>journalism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/incarceration" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>incarceration</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SuperMax" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SuperMax</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/wrongfulconviction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>wrongfulconviction</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History March 19, 1935: Harlem Uprising occurred, during the Great Depression, after rumors circulated that a black Puerto Rican teenage shoplifter was beaten by employees at an S. H. Kress "five and dime" store, and then killed by the police. Protests were quickly organized by the Young Liberators and the Young Communist League, which were promptly declared illegal by the police. Participants smashed windows of the store and began looting. The protest and looting spread, causing $200 million in damages. Police arrested 125 people and killed 3. Mayor LaGuardia set up a multi-racial Commission to investigate the causes of the riot, headed by African-American sociologist E. Franklin Frazier and with members including labor leader A. Philip Randolph. The identified "injustices of discrimination in employment, the aggressions of the police, and the racial segregation" as conditions which led to the outbreak of rioting, and congratulated the Communist organizations as deserving "more credit than any other element in Harlem for preventing a physical conflict between whites and blacks". </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/harlem" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>harlem</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Riot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Riot</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/greatdepression" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>greatdepression</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/police" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>police</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/policebrutality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>policebrutality</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/poverty" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>poverty</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/segregation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>segregation</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History March 15, 1877: Ben Fletcher, African-American IWW organizer was born on this date. Fletcher organized longshoremen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He joined the Wobblies (IWW) in 1912, became secretary of the IWW District Council in 1913. He also co-founded the interracial Local 8 in 1913. By 1916, thanks in large part to Fletcher’s organizing skill, all but two of Philadelphia’s docks were controlled by the IWW. And the union maintained control of the Philly waterfront for about a decade. After the 1913 strike, Fletcher traveled up and down the east coast organizing dockers. However, he was nearly lynched in Norfolk, Virginia in 1917. At that time, roughly 10% of the IWW’s 1 million members were African American. Most had been rejected from other unions because of their skin color. In 1918, the state arrested him, sentencing him to ten years for the crime of organizing workers during wartime. He served three years.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/IWW" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IWW</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BenFletcher" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BenFletcher</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AfricanAmerican" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AfricanAmerican</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/lynching" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>lynching</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/prison" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>prison</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/union" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>union</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/strike" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>strike</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/wobblies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>wobblies</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/longshore" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>longshore</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/philadelphia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>philadelphia</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>“What I want is for every dirty, lousy tramp to arm himself with a revolver or knife on the steps of the palaces of the rich and stab or shoot their owners as they come out.” </p><p>This was what Lucy Parsons, then in her 80’s, told a crowd at a May Day rally in Chicago, at the height of the Great Depression. The way folk singer Utah Phillips tells the story, she was the image of everybody’s grandmother, prim and proper, face creased with age, tiny voice, hair tied back in a bun. She died in Chicago, Illinois, on this date in Labor History, March 7, 1942.</p><p>Little is known about Lucy Parson’s early life, but various records indicate that she was born to an enslaved African American woman, in Virginia, sometime around 1848-1851. She may also have had indigenous and Mexican ancestry. Some documents record her name as Lucia Gonzalez. In 1863, her family moved to Waco, Texas. There, as a teenager, she married a freedman named Oliver Benton. But she later married Albert Parsons, a former Confederate officer from Waco, who had become a radical Republican after the war. He worked for the Waco Spectator, which criticized the Klan and demanded sociopolitical equality for African Americans. Albert was shot in the leg and threatened with lynching for helping African Americans register to vote. It is unclear whether her initial marriage was ever dissolved, and likely that her second marriage was more of a common-law arrangement, considering the anti-miscegenation laws that existed then.</p><p>In 1873, Lucy and Albert moved to Chicago to get away from the racist violence and threats of the KKK. There, they became members of the socialist International Workingmen's Association, and the Knights of Labor, a radical labor union that organized all workers, regardless of race or gender. They had two children in the 1870s, one of whom died from illness at the age of eight. Lucy worked as a seamstress. Albert worked as a printer for the Chicago Times. These were incredibly difficult times for workers. The Long Depression had just begun, one of the worst, and longest, depressions in U.S. history. Jobs were scarce and wages were low. Additionally, bosses were exploiting the Contract Labor Law of 1864 to bring in immigrant workers who they could pay even less than native-born workers.</p><p>In 1877, Lucy and Albert Parsons helped organize protests and strikes in Chicago during the Great Upheaval. The police violence against the workers there was intense. One journalist wrote, “The sound of clubs falling on skulls was sickening for the first minute, until one grew accustomed to it. A rioter dropped at every whack, it seemed, for the ground was covered with them.” During the Battle of the Viaduct (July 25, 1877), the police slaughtered thirty workers and injured over one hundred. Albert was fired from his job and blacklisted, because of his revolutionary street corner speeches.</p><p>After the Great Upheaval, they both moved away from electoral politics and began to support more radical anarchist activism. Lucy condoned political violence, self-defense against racial violence, and class struggle against religion. Along with Lizzie Swank, and others, she helped found the Chicago Working Women's Union (WWU), which encouraged women workers to unionize and promoted the eight-hour workday. </p><p>During the late 1870s and early 1880s, she wrote numerous articles, including "Our Civilization, Is it Worth Saving?" and "The Factory Child. Their Wrongs Portrayed and Their Rescue Demanded." In 1884, she helped edit the radical newspaper The Alarm. She wrote an article for that paper, "To Tramps, the Unemployed, the Disinherited and Miserable," which sold of over 100,000 copies. In that article, she advocated using violence against the bosses. In 1885, she published "Dynamite! The only voice the oppressors of the people can understand," in the Denver Labor Enquirer. During this period, Lucy gave numerous fiery speeches on the shores of Lake Michigan. Hundreds of people routinely attended. Mother Jones thought her speeches advocated too much violence. The Chicago Police Department called her “more dangerous than 1,000 rioters.”</p><p>On May 1, 1886, 350,000 workers went on strike across the U.S. to demand the eight-hour workday. In Chicago, Albert and Lucy led a peaceful demonstration of 80,000 people down Michigan Avenue. It was the world’s first May Day/International Workers’ Day demonstration—an event that has been celebrated ever since, by nearly every country in the world, except for the U.S. Two days later, another anarchist, August Spies, addressed striking workers at the McCormick Reaper factory. Chicago Police and Pinkertons attacked the crowd, killing at least one person. On May 4, anarchists organized a demonstration at Haymarket Square to protest that police violence. The police ordered the protesters to disperse. Somebody threw a bomb, which killed at least one cop. The police opened fire, killing another seven workers. Six police also died, likely from “friendly fire” by other cops. </p><p>The authorities, in their outrage, went on a witch hunt, rounding up most of the city’s leading anarchists and radical labor leaders, including Albert Parsons and August Spies. Lucy toured the country, giving speeches and distributing literature about the men’s innocence. Everywhere she went, she was greeted by police, often being barred entrance to the meeting halls where she was scheduled to speak. She was also arrested numerous times. </p><p>Despite her efforts, and those of other activists fighting to free the Haymarket anarchists, seven were ultimately convicted of killing the cops, even though none of them were present at Haymarket Square when the bomb was thrown. Four were executed, in 1887, including Albert Parsons. On the morning of his execution, Lucy brought their children to see him for the last time, but she was arrested and taken to the Chicago Avenue police station, where they strip-searched her for explosives. Albert’s casket was later brought to Lucy’s sewing shop, where over 10,000 people came to pay their respects. 15,000 people attended his funeral. Several years later, the governor of Illinois pardoned all seven men, determining that neither the police, nor the Pinkertons, who testified against them, were reliable witnesses.</p><p>After her husband’s execution, Lucy continued her radical organizing, writing, and speeches. In October 1888, she visited London, where she met with the anarchists Peter Kropotkin and William Morris. In the 1890s, she edited and wrote for the newspaper Freedom, A Revolutionary Anarchist-Communist Monthly. In 1892, Alexander Berkman (an anarchist comrade and lover of Emma Goldman) attempted to assassinate the industrialist Henry Clay Frick, for his role in the slaughter of striking steel workers, during the Homestead Strike. Lucy published the following in Freedom: "For our part we have only the greatest admiration for a hero like Berkman." </p><p>In 1905, Lucy cofounded the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), along with Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene Debs, James Connolly, and others. The IWW was, and still is, a revolutionary union, seeking not only better working conditions in the here and now, but the complete abolition of capitalism. The preamble to their constitution states, “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.” They advocate the General Strike and sabotage as two of many means to these ends. </p><p>At the founding meeting of the IWW, Lucy said that women were the slaves of slaves. “We are exploited more ruthlessly than men. Whenever wages are to be reduced the capitalist class use women to reduce them.” She called on the new union to fight for gender equality and to assess underpaid women lower union dues. She also started advocating for nonviolent protest, telling workers that instead of walking off the job, and starving, they should strike, but remain at their worksites, taking control of their bosses’ machinery and property. This was years before Gandhi started leading Indians in nonviolent protest.</p><p> Read my entire biography of her here: <a href="https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/24/lucy-parsons/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/</span><span class="invisible">24/lucy-parsons/</span></a></p><p>“When the prison, stake or scaffold can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority, progress moves on a step, but not until then.” –Lucy Parsons</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/lucyparsons" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>lucyparsons</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/IWW" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IWW</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/haymarket" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>haymarket</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/anarchism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>anarchism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/communism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>communism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/womenshistorymonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>womenshistorymonth</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/rebellion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rebellion</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/8HourDay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>8HourDay</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/eighthourday" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>eighthourday</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/motherjones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>motherjones</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/eugenedebs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>eugenedebs</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/execution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>execution</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/bigbillhaywood" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>bigbillhaywood</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/union" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>union</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/scottsboro" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>scottsboro</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/chicago" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>chicago</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/waco" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>waco</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/texas" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>texas</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/slavery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>slavery</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/civilwar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>civilwar</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/africanamerican" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>africanamerican</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History March 2, 1962: Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in one basketball game, setting an NBA record. The closest anyone has come to this record was Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game in 2006. Chamberlain also broke the record for most free throws scored during a game. That season, he averaged over 50 points per game, scoring over 60 points in 12 games. No one has come close to this. Wilt also had a 78-point game in 1961, two 73-point games in 1962, a 72-point game in 1962 and a 70-point game in 1963. Chamberlain has 5 the 8 single highest single game point totals in NBA history. I was lucky enough to see him play once, as a kid, toward the end of his career, when he was playing for the now defunct San Diego Conquistadores.</p><p>Chamberlain holds 72 NBA records, including records in scoring and rebounding. He once made 55 rebounds in a single game. He is not only the only NBA player to average over 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the course of a season, he did this seven times in his career. He left college early to play professionally, at first with the Harlem Globetrotters because, in those days, the NBA refused to accept players until their graduating year of college had ended. One of the Globetrotters’ skits involved team captain, Meadowlark Lemon, feigning injury and falling to the floor. Instead of helping him up, Chamberlain lifted the 210-pound Lemon and threw him several feet into the air, and then caught him, like a ragdoll. Lemon called Chamberlain the strongest athlete who ever lived. In 1967, Chamberlain nearly got the opportunity to box against Muhammad Ali. </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>nba</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/basketball" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>basketball</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/wiltchamberlain" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>wiltchamberlain</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/kobebryant" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>kobebryant</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/blackhistorymonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blackhistorymonth</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/blackhistorymonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blackhistorymonth</span></a></p>
Dr. Starshine<p>Your joy is revolutionary 💜🩷</p><p><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/DailySelfie" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DailySelfie</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Queer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Queer</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/QueerJoy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>QueerJoy</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BlackJoy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackJoy</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/DrStarshine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DrStarshine</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today, for Black History Month, we remember Hiram Rhodes Revels who, on this date, February 25, 1870, was sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress. He was a Republican from Mississippi. His cousins were killed participating in John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. During the Civil War, he helped recruit and organize two black Union regiments. When he first arrived at the Senate, southern Democrats refused to let him sit, arguing that the Dred Scott decision, in 1857, ruled that he wasn’t a citizen and had no right to serve, despite the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, which gave him birthright citizenship</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/congress" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>congress</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/slavery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>slavery</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/reconstruction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>reconstruction</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/johnbrown" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>johnbrown</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/harpersferry" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>harpersferry</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/republican" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>republican</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/slavery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>slavery</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/abolition" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>abolition</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CivilWar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CivilWar</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HiramRhodesRevels" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HiramRhodesRevels</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/uprising" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>uprising</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/revolt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>revolt</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/birthrightcitizenship" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>birthrightcitizenship</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/blackhistorymonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blackhistorymonth</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History February 24, 1895: Revolution broke out in Baire, near Santiago de Cuba. This was the beginning of the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898). The liberation war ended with the Spanish-American War and the U.S. taking Cuba as a colony. Some of the more well-known commanders of the Cuban revolution were the poet Jose Marti (composer of “Guantanamera”) and Afro-Cuban Antonio Maceo, the Titan of Bronze.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/cuba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cuba</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/independence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>independence</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Revolution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Revolution</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/josemarti" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>josemarti</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/antoniomaceo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>antoniomaceo</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/liberation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>liberation</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/guantanamera" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>guantanamera</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/colonialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>colonialism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/revolutionary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>revolutionary</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/blackhistorymonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blackhistorymonth</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History February 21, 1965: Malcolm X, who was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom, New York City.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/blackhistorymonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blackhistorymonth</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/malcolmx" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>malcolmx</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/assassination" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>assassination</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in honor of Black History Month, we remember Frederick Douglass, who died on this date, February 20, 1895. In an 1857 address Douglass said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." </p><p>After escaping slavery, Douglass became a national leader of the abolition movement. He also supported the women’s suffrage movement and ran for vice president as running mate to Victoria Woodhull on the Equal Rights Party ticket. In addition to being a brilliant orator, writer and social justice activist, Douglass was also the single most photographed man of the 19th century. He sat for over 160 portraits, always taking a dignified pose. He considered photography a tool for creating a positive image of black men. (Check out the graphic novel about Frederick Douglass by comic book artist extraordinaire, David Walker).</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/slavery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>slavery</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/abolition" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>abolition</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/freedom" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>freedom</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FrederickDouglass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FrederickDouglass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/blackhistorymonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blackhistorymonth</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/photography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>photography</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>books</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/graphicnovel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>graphicnovel</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/write" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>write</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today, for Black History Month, we honor the memory of Mary Fields (c. 1832–12/5/1914), also known as Stagecoach Mary, an American mail carrier who was the first Black woman to be employed as a star route postwoman in the United States. She was born into slavery. After emancipation, she worked as a chambermaid on a steamship, and as a household servant. In 1895, at the age of sixty, she got a job as a Star Route Carrier, which used a stagecoach to deliver mail in the harsh weather and rocky terrain of Montana. She carried multiple firearms, most notably a .38 Smith & Wesson under her apron to protect herself and the mail from wolves, thieves and bandits. She never missed a day, and her reliability earned her the nickname "Stagecoach Mary." When the snow was too deep for horses, she delivered the mail on snowshoes, carrying the sacks on her shoulders.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/stagecoachmary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>stagecoachmary</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/maryfields" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>maryfields</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/slavery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>slavery</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/blackhistorymonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blackhistorymonth</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today, in honor of Black History Month, we remember the first of the Nashville sit-ins, which occurred at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee on this date, February 13, 1960. The protests were organized by black college students and lasted through May and were intended to end segregation at lunch counters. They were coordinated by the Nashville Student Movement and the Nashville Christian Leadership Council, and were part of the broader sit-in movement that spread across the southern United States in the wake of the Greensboro sit-ins in North Carolina.</p><p>The students were represented by a group of 13 lawyers, headed by Z. Alexander Looby. Racists bombed Looby's home on April 19. He, and his family, escaped uninjured. Later that day, over 3,000 people marched to City Hall to confront the mayor about the escalating violence. After subsequent negotiations, an agreement was reached in May, and six downtown stores began serving black customers at their lunch counters for the first time.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/jimcrow" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>jimcrow</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nashville" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>nashville</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sitins" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>sitins</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/civilrights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>civilrights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/blackhistorymonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blackhistorymonth</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History February 12, 1853: Illinois passed a law requiring any blacks entering the state & staying more than 10 days to pay a $50 fine. If unable to pay, they would be sold into slavery for a period commensurate with the fine. It was one of many state laws in the supposedly anti-slavery North that helped perpetuate slavery in the South.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/slavery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>slavery</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/illinois" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>illinois</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/blackhistorymonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blackhistorymonth</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackMastadon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastadon</span></a></p>
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