Episodes

  • January 14 - Remembering Julian Bond
    Jan 14 2025

    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.”

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    2 mins
  • January 13 - The Tompkins Square Riot
    Jan 13 2025

    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.

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    2 mins
  • January 12 - Cox’s Army Marches on the Nation’s Capitol
    Jan 12 2025

    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

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    2 mins
  • January 11 - The Bread & Roses Strike
    Jan 11 2025

    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.

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    2 mins
  • January 10 - Honoring Joe Hill
    Jan 10 2025

    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.

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    2 mins
  • January 9 - Southern Tenant Farmers Line Missouri Highways
    Jan 9 2025

    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.”

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    2 mins
  • January 8 - The German Coast Uprising of 1811
    Jan 8 2025

    Often significant days in history pass with little attention. Today in labor history, January 8, 1811, is one such day. On that day Charles Deslonde, an enslaved sugar laborer in the New Orleans territory led what became one of the largest slave revolts in American history.

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    2 mins
  • January 7 - Semana Trágica
    Jan 7 2025

    Today in labor history, January 7, 1919 began what is known as Semana Trágica, or Tragic Week in Argentina. Labor unrest had been mounting in Buenos Aries. On January 7, police killed four workers who were striking for better conditions at an ironworks plant.

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    2 mins