Memphis Tennessee Massacre

From here, came the Great Strike of 1877. According to Fredrick Kunkle of Washingtonpost.com, “The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in Martinsburg . . . when railroad workers responded to yet another pay cut by shutting down the yard. Violent clashes broke out, and from there the trouble raced along the great railroad lines into Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and St. Louis, building in ferocity as it went” (1). Kunkle adds, “By the time the strike was put down, an estimated 100,000 workers had taken part and about 100 people had died” (1). However, this disturbing event would never have taken place without John W. Garrett’s signature. “The spark came when John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, signed off on a 10 percent wage cut,” says Kunkle (1). This ‘Great Strike’ gave a brutal example to the consequences that might follow injustice in the workplace.

The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike

The coal miners’ strike of 1902, was a big impactful move that ended because a federal takeover was threatened by President Roosevelt. The women's trade union league was middle and upper class women and immigrants founded to bring women workers into unions, this was established in 1903 and reiterates the main ideal of the era by fighting for all workers’ equality. In 1907 there were 10,000 black and white dock workers that initiated a strike and showed remarkable unbiased solidarity, this occurred in the town of New Orleans, Louisiana. In the 1909 uprising of the 20,000 garment workers, an unprecedented victory was accomplished for the international ladies’ garment workers’ union.

As stated, many labor unions that were created utilized strikes to negotiate and come to a compromise between business leaders and their workers. However, it got to the point where they were being overused, and starting to turn very violent. The first time this had occurred is the Great Strike in the year of 1877. It occurred in the city of Baltimore, where workers from the Ohio Railroad company were on strike due to their pay checks being cut. However, a compromise was unable to be in a timely manner, causing the railroad system to come to a halt. This delay lasted for about a week or two, even causing the federal government to get involved as the economy and commerce was being greatly affected by this. To bring an end to this, the President,

On April 30, 1970 President Nixon had officially announced that the United States was going to war in Vietnam. The next day a huge group of students at Kent State University, in Ohio, were protesting. As well as many other students at different Universities across the country. Everyone was protesting the bombing that was happening in Cambodia as well as the United States involvement the Vietnam War. What started as a somewhat peaceful protest, turned very violent. The students at Kent State set the ROTC building on fire. The local police force was called in which did not do much help. Kent’s Mayor called the Governor of Ohio, James Rhodes, and asked to send help. Rhodes sent The Ohio National Guard to Kent State. When the national guard got

During the Civil War, many unions became synonymous with strikes, promoting workers to strike for better wages and a decent way of living. However, this act encouraged employers to unify against poor workers and to penalize those that tried to start strikes. By the time that the Civil War would end, the interactions between companies and laborers would leave negative connotations over the heads of union leaders as rebels that slowed production during a trying time in the history of the United States (Paludan, 196). While unions were able to have influence on the local level of politics, by the end of the Civil War, unions would not be able to reach a national audience. Instead, the war offered the groundwork to organize into a strong movement where workers and industrial manufactures would be able to civilly interact with each other while trying to reach common ground between the owners and the workers of a manufacturing

killed the police officer, J.D. Tippit, and he was later charged for the assassination of the

Ironically, there were over 3,000 strikes that took place during the early 1900’s, as owners refused to give raises and banned the formation of unions. This angered many people and sparked some of the biggest strikes to ever occur up to this point in time. Two of these strikes were the Boston Police Strike and Steel Mill Strike. Due to these worker restrictions, Police Officers in Boston were infuriated and many were actually fired and the rest went on strike. This strike was taken down,

Every human in this world is promised to something from love to a better country.

On 1 May 1866 in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, an altercation between black Union soldiers and Memphis police officers started a chain reaction that eventually brought about what has come to be known as the Memphis Riots of 1866. The group of amicably intoxicated soldiers reacted negatively when told by a small group of officers to break up their party, and although no one was seriously injured, the situation quickly escalated to the point where shots were fired on both sides (Carden 2). This incident, however, was not the cause of the Memphis Riots. Instead, I will argue that the altercation merely served as the spark to set a fire to a whole mess of kindling made of economic, political, and social twigs and branches, which was already in place long before the actual events of the Memphis Riots.

On April 8, King’s family led a crowd estimated at 40,000 "in a silent march through the streets of Memphis to honor the fallen leader and support the cause of the city's black sanitation workers". After Dr. King’s assassination many people changed their opinions and strategies for protest. Many saw Dr. King’s assassination as the end of nonviolent protests. Nationwide riots erupted in over 100 cities. His death led some people to feel angry and disillusioned, as though now only violent resistance to white racism could be

In the 1960s unions did little in promoting equity in the work force. Unions were criticized for being “insensitivity to the aspirations of black people" (Zieger, p. 216) discrimination and segregation still occurred in the labor movements, for instance, AFL-CIO was often disapproved for dragging cases which involves discrimination and exclusion of black workers unlike the immediate attention given to their affiliates charged with communist influence and corruption (Zieger, p. 220-221).

adamantly opposed any recognition of the union. Thus, the union members decided to strike over wages, safety

assassinated. When he found him, he punched him face several times and told him about what happend.

On, May 1919 a strike occurred in the city of Winnipeg. Workers went on strike to improve working and living conditions. The employers wanted $0.85/hour and 8 hours of work/day. May 1st, building and metal traders council voted to go on strike. May 15th, 30 000 workers went on strike as well. Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal went on a strike to support the strike occurring in Winnipeg. The government declared federal workers to return to work. On June 21st, Bloody Saturday occurred, when the police charged many people. 1 man was killed, 30 injured and hundreds were killed. The negotiations were not made between strikers and the government leaders. The strike ended and the strikers thought the strike was a failure. The strike lasted 6 weeks. The workers were forced to sign the Yellow Dog Contracts which meant they were not allowed to join a union. (Reilly,2015,1,2,6 para)