On May 30, 1937, Chicago police attacked a Memorial Day gathering of unarmed, striking steelworkers and their families. The police shot and killed ten of the strikers. Read an essay below by renowned author Howard Fast and watch video clips.

By Howard Fast

Memorial Day in Chicago in 1937 was hot, humid, and sunny; it was the right kind of day for the parade and the holiday, the kind of a day that takes the soreness out of a Civil War veteran’s back, makes him feel like stepping out with the youngsters a quarter his age. It was a day for picnics, for boating, for the beach or a long ride into the country. . . Most of the strikers felt good.

Tom Girdler, who ran Republic, had said that he would go back to hoeing potatoes before he met the strikers’ demands, and word went around that old Tom could do worse than earn an honest living hoeing potatoes. The strike was less than a week old; the strikers had not yet felt the pinch of hunger, and there was a good sense of solidarity everywhere.

Because it was such a fine summer day, many of the strikers brought their children out onto the prairie to attend the first big mass meeting; and wherever you looked, you saw two-year-olds and three-year-olds riding pick-a-back on the shoulders of steelworkers.

Continue reading Fast’s full essay.

Film Footage

Chicago Memorial Day Massascre, Part I

The police brutality was captured on film.



Chicago Memorial Day Massascre, Part II



Read more in a Truthout article, “A Memorial Day Massacre.” Find resources to teach labor history below.