#8hourday

#OnThisDay the Haymarket Riot occurred on May 4, 1886.

In the 1880s, at a time when industrial expansion was rapid, workers put in long hours under terrible working conditions and were poorly paid. Many labor activists took to the streets to demand safe working conditions and fair wages. On May 3, outside Chicago’s McCormick Harvesting Machine plant, workers on strike during a long-term action harassed strikebreakers as they left the plant, and police intervened, killing two strikers. The next day, while workers were peacefully demonstrating to protest police violence and calling for the 8 hour work day, police stepped in to disperse the crowd, and a bomb was thrown in the path of the police officers. Many were injured and at least 11 people died including 7 police officers and 4 workers. Four men were executed for the crime, though the identity of the bomber is still in dispute.

This illustration of the Haymarket tragedy from Harper’s Weekly conflates the timing of the riot, bombing, and Samuel Fielden speaking, urging demonstrators to remain peaceful.