Courtesy of the Bread & Roses Labor Memorial Committee:
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
― George OrwellThe Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 took the lives of 10 steel workers and injured 105. The Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) organized a peaceful protest that was to take place on Memorial Day in 1937. SWOC was attempting to organize the steel workers into an industrial union. When the company refused to recognize the union the workers went out on strike. The workers were striking against Republic Steel, part of the group of steel companies known as "Little Steel", who did not want to grant them union recognition.
After a family picnic, workers and their families decided to picket in front of the Republic Steel main gate. When the group a line of police officers, about 300 ft. wide, met them. The workers tried to talk to the police about letting them picket in front of the main gate; instead, the police opened fire on the crowd. Gas bombs and shots were fired at the crowd. When the day ended, 4 people were killed, 6 would later die in the hospital, and 30 suffered gunshot wounds, mostly in the back as they ran away.