May 1st or May Day is a recognized workers' holiday or "Labor Day" in many countries around the world, but not in the United States. Few Americans realize that the origins of this international holiday lie in the events that occurred in Chicago in May, 1886.
On May 3, 1886, "...Chicago police fired into a crowd of striking workers at the McCormick Reaper Works, killing and wounding several men. The following evening, anarchist and socialist labor leaders organized a meeting of workingmen near Chicago's Haymarket Square. Speakers at the meeting denounced the police attack of the previous afternoon and urged workers to intensify their struggle for an eight-hour workday and other improvements in labor conditions." Chicago History Museum
"...Then someone hurled a bomb at the police, killing one officer instantly. Police drew guns, firing wildly. Sixty officers were injured, and eight died; an undetermined number of the crowd were killed or wounded. [In the aftermath], police arrested hundreds of people, but never determined the identity of the bomb thrower." Encyclopedia of Chicago
"...Amidst public clamor for revenge, however, eight anarchists, including prominent speakers and writers, were tried for murder. Lacking credible evidence that the defendants threw the bomb or organized the bomb throwing, prosecutors focused on their writings and speeches. The jury, instructed to adopt a conspiracy theory without legal precedent, convicted all eight." Four men were hanged. Famous American Trials
In the years that followed, international labor leaders used the Haymarket Affair as a rallying cry to achieve the eventual adoption of the eight-hour workday. May 1st became a day to remember the Haymarket "martyrs" and to celebrate the subsequent achievements of organized labor.
Selected books available to borrow from the Lincoln Park Campus Library include:
