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This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Escape on the Pearl; Black Labor Week DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton connects a historic escape attempt by slaves with today’s fight for DC statehood; AFGE’s Black Labor Week on “Black History, Race and Racism in America,” and on Labor History in 2: The Fight for Equality in 1830. Last week’s show: Labor Day: no picnic in a pandemic The Mechanics Gazette, believed to be the first U.S. labor newspaper, is published in Philadelphia, the outgrowth of a strike by Carpenters demanding a shorter, 10-hour day. The strike lost but labor journalism blossomed: within five years there were 68 labor newspapers across the country, many of them dailies - 1827 The Gatling Gun Co. – manufacturers of an early machine gun – writes to B&O Railroad Co. President John W. Garrett during a strike, urging their product be purchased to deal with the "recent riotous disturbances around the country." Says the company: "Four or five men only are required to operate (a gun), and one Gatling ... can clear a street or block and keep it clear" - 1877 United Farm Workers Union begins lettuce strike - 1970 - David Prosten Comments are closed.
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