Haymarket Poster

In response to the Chicago police department's killing of four workers during a strike at the McCormick Harvester's Works on May 3rd, labor leaders organized a meeting at Haymarket Square for the following night. About 3,000 persons assembled, later dwindling to a few hundred. A detachment of 180 policemen showed up. The speaker said the meeting was almost over. Then a bomb exploded in the midst of the police, wounding 66, one of whom later died.

Six others died from gunshot wounds from their fellow officers. The police fired into the crowd, killing several people and wounding 200. Eight anarchists were arrested and put on trial. Facing an openly biased judge in Joseph Gary and a clearly hostile jury, the Haymarket Affair is one of the most infamously unjust trials in American history. The prosecution focused on the men's anarchist ties rather than determining whether the accused had any real connection to the crime. Essentially, eight men (7 of whom were not present when the bomb was thrown) ewre tried and convicted because of their political beliefs.

August Spies, Albert Parsons, George Engel, and Adolph Fischer were hanged. Louis Lingg killed himself before the state could. Samuael Fielden, Michael Schwab, and Oscar Neebe were sentenced to prison (eventually being granted clemency in 1892). The Haymarket Riot was an important event for the labor movement. The year 1886 became known as the "the year of the great uprising of labor". From 1881 to 1885, strikes had averaged about 500 per year, involving perhaps 150,000 workers each year. In 1886 there was over 1,400 strikes, involving 500,000 workers.

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