Today in labor history: The Lattimer massacre

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


"The Lattimer massacre was an incident in which a sheriff's posse killed nineteen unarmed immigrant miners and wounded scores more. On 10 September 1897 at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, men under the authority of the Luzerne County sheriff fired on a peaceful labor demonstration made up of mostly Polish, Slovak, and Lithuanian anthracite miners. This incident stands not only as the largest massacre of Central Europeans in the United States, but also as a turning point in the American labor movement.

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Reporters from many major east-coast newspapers were already in the county covering the strike when the massacre occurred. The resulting headlines outraged the American public. The Pennsylvania National Guard was immediately dispatched to the county to restore order. Sheriff Martin and 78 of his 87 deputies were arrested and put on trial, but were later acquitted. This verdict upset those involved in the American labor movement, as well as the government of Austria-Hungary (the homeland of some of the wounded). These parties alleged that the trial was conducted unfairly, and speculated that the locally-born jury was unlikely to return a verdict favoring the foreign-born miners.

The massacre's publicity drew sympathy from the American middle class towards the plight of Slavic laborers. However, the incident prompted Slavic laborers to distrust the American politico-justice system. The backlash added 15,000 new names to the rolls of the United Mine Workers of America."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattimer_massacre

[Omaha Steve]

1. Thanks for the post

This is what I was going to post. Yours has a lot more details.

September 10

Polish, Lithuanian and Slovak miners were gunned down—19 dead, more than 50 wounded—by the Lattimer Mine’s sheriff deputies in Hazelton, PA. Most were shot in the back. The miners were marching peacefully and without weapons for collective bargaining and civil liberty - 1897

OS

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2. Hazelton, PA is one of the towns that passed anti-illegal immigrant laws

http://www.whptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=05fdc6e0-6727-4d1e-97e6-4108bae9d3a5

Hazleton, which is about 90 minutes north of Harrisburg, has been making waves with its own crackdown on illegal immigrants. In July a U.S. District Judge ruled that Hazleton's illegal immigrant law is unconstitutional. The City is appealing that ruling. Saturday the debate came to Harrisburg. Ben Russell has the story on two rallies and two very different opinions.