On December 1, 1868, a young black former Union soldier named John Henry was among a group of convicts sent from Richmond to West Virginia to blast a railroad tunnel, where he would soon die. Everyone
On November 28, 1901, a strike among Cuban cigar workers in Tampa, Florida collapsed after workers inspired by the Cuban revolutionary Jose Martí sought to create a cross-racial organization to resis
On September 29, 1962, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference announced Operation Breadbasket, a boycott campaign against companies that refused to hire African-Americans. This was part of the l
On October 26, 1924, the first of five workers died in less than a week at Standard Oil’s Bayway TEL works from lead exposure in making leaded gasoline. Lead has been part of human economic activity
On October 12, 1898, a racialized battle over strikebreaking broke out in the southern Illinois coal mining town of Virden, Illinois. The so-called Battle of Virden demonstrates the ways that employer
On September 27, 1875, striking textile workers in Fall River, Massachusetts engaged in a bread riot as the workers were forced to return to their job or face shipment to the state’s poor farm.
On September 9, 1985, the largely Latina workforce in the large frozen food processing facilities in Watsonville, California walked out on strike after employers cut their wages. After a long, brutal
On September 4, 1970, Salvador Allende won election as president of Chile, a moment of victory for the idea of a democratic socialist revolution, one that right-wing nations such as the United States