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May Day, Haymarket, Kent State, Jackson State

The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.

The Haymarket Martyrs' Monument, Chicago, Illinois,
 
The Haymarket Martyrs' Monument commemorates workers' struggle to achieve the eight-hour workday and the 1886 rally in Haymarket Square that led to the hanging of four  of the fight for workers' rights. 
 
On May 4, 1886 a group of workers gathered in Haymarket Square in Chicago to protest police brutality against strikers at the South Side McCormick Reaper Factory. At the conclusion of the meeting, police marched in and demanded an end to the gathering. An unknown assailant threw a bomb into the crowd, and police shots rang out. Several police officers and protestors were killed or wounded. Police later apprehended eight labor activists, four of whom would be executed. 
 
In Dec. 1887 the Pioneer Aid and Support Association was incorporated with the purpose of "providing for the families of the executed men and of erecting a monument to their memory." 
 
The monument marks the gravesite of the Haymarket martyrs
-- August Spies, Adolph Fischer, Albert Parsons, Louis Lingg, and George Engel. German Waldheim Cemetery, with its nondiscrimination policy, was the only cemetery in the Chicago area that would accept their remains. The dedication ceremony on June 25, 1893 was attended by over 8,000 people. Floral tributes came from unions in England, France and Belgium. 
 
On Feb. 18, 1997 the monument was officially designated a National Historic Landmark. 
  
From: The Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Inventory of American Sculpture
 
 
 
 
Executed on November 11, 1887
 
The Haymarket Martyrs
Four men were executed, one committed suicide in prison and three others were pardoned by Illinois Governor Peter Altgeld.
 

The Folks that Brought you the Weekend.

Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio

(notecard, t-shirt, poster)

 

Remembering

Kent State and Jackson State

 
On May 4, 1970 at Kent State University, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam War. Four students were killed and nine were wounded. In its immediate aftermath, a student-led strike forced the temporary closure of colleges and universities across the country.
 
 
On May 15, 1970 at Jackson State College, Mississippi police opened fire on a crowd of students killing two and wounding twelve. Racial tension between white motorists who traveled through campus, a false rumor about the assassination of Fayette mayor Charles Evers, the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings contributed to the students' protest.
 
 

Allison Krause, William Schroeder, Sandra Scheuer & Jeffrey Miller, 

Kent State University, 1970

 
by
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
 
 

Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21-year-old law student & James Earl Green, 17-year-old high school student.

Jackson State College, 1970

 
by
Magpie
Terry Leonino & Greg Artzner
 
 
Learn more about the tragedy that occurred
at Jackson State College. This video was produced by
Jackson State University, Office of Communications.
Click here.
 
 
 
 
 
On April 28th, the labor movement observes Workers' Memorial Day to remember workers killed, injured, or made ill on the job and to renew the fight for strong safety and health protections. (AFL-CIO)

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