1800s
Today in Labor History May 19, 1850: Four thousand Mexican workers gathered in Sonora, California, to protest the “Foreign Miners’ Tax.” Legislators enacted the law to drive the Chinese from California. (For more on historical anti-immigrant legislation, read here). However, white Californians didn’t care much for anyone who didn’t look like them, including Mexicans. In order to enforce the law, a militia of 500 armed tax collectors and Anglo miners drove off the Mexican miners. Ultimately, however, the bill backfired. So many Mexican and Chinese miners left California that the landowners and merchants lost money because of declining demand. Consequently, they lobbied for the repeal of the tax. a few years later, in 1855, California passed the Greaser Act to legalize the arrest of Mexicans the authorities deemed vagrants. The bill literally used the word “greaser” to refer to mestizos.
May 19, 1855: U.S. troops landed in Shanghai to “protect American interests.”
Today in Labor History May 19, 1895: Cuban Revolutionary and independence leader Jose Marti died in battle. Marti was a poet, philosopher, professor and publisher. He was also an abolitionist and an anti-imperialist. In Cuba, he is considered a national hero for his role in the liberation of the country. He helped design and lead the Cuban War for Independence. The song “Guantanamera” is an adaptation of one of his poems. His work influenced Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario and Chilean poet Gabriel Mistral. Mexico City has a cultural center named for him.
Early 1900s
May 19, 1902: An explosion occurred at the Fraterville Mine, in Coal Creek, Tennessee. As a result, two hundred sixteen miners died. This was all but three of the adult males living in Fraterville. The mine had a reputation for fair contracts and pay. The miners were represented by the United Mine Workers, which considered the mine safe. Methane may have leaked in from a nearby mine.
May 19, 1909: IWW brewery workers continued their strike in Kalispell, Montana. In Eureka, Montana, IWW mill workers were on strike and driving off scabs hired by the bosses. IWW smelters in Prescott Arizona won their demand for a 12.5% wage increase. And a five-day strike in Seattle by IWW construction workers ended with bosses agreeing to hire only Wobblies and paying them $3 for an eight-hour day.
The Battle of Matewan
Today in Labor History May 18, 1920: The Battle of Matewan occurred in the town of Matewan, Mingo County, West Virginia. It started when the mine bosses fired miners for joining the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and evicted them from their company housing. The bosses hired the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to protect their scabs and evict the union men. Sheriff Sid Hatfield, who was from the Tug River Valley, supported the miners’ right to organize and tried to arrest the detectives. The detectives, in turn, tried to arrest Hatfield. Unbeknownst to the detectives, armed miners had surrounded them. No one knows who shot first, but when the smoke had cleared, there were 7 dead detectives, including Albert and Lee Felts. Additionally, there were 4 dead townspeople, including the mayor. The episode became known as the “Matewan Battle” or “Matewan Massacre,” and is depicted in John Sayles’ film Matewan.
Background
Mining was one of the most dangerous and corrupt industries around. Owners typically forced the miners to live in company towns and purchase living necessities from their company stores at inflated prices. They paid the men in scrip, which was useless outside of the company towns. In the time leading up to the Battle of Matewan, miners in other parts of the country had won a 27% wage increase. The time was ripe for organizing southern Appalachia. The UMWA sent in their best organizers, including Mother Jones. 3,000 men signed union cards in the early spring of 1920. Yet, at the same time, vigilantes, detectives and goons were murdering miners in the region. And the company was evicting anyone who joined the union. Consequently, hundreds of miners and their families were living in the Stony Mountain Camp Tent Colony.
In order to quell the violence, the governor sent in the state police to take control of Matewan. Hatfield cooperated. And the miners, encouraged by the departure of the Baldwin Thugs, increased their organizing efforts. On July 1, they went on strike again and were met with even more violence. Striking miners were beaten and left to die in the streets. And the remaining Felts brother, Tom, instigated a vendetta against Sheriff Hatfield, having him killed by his agency in 1921.
1920s
Today in Labor History May 19, 1921: Labor organizing and strikes continued in Mingo County (see Matewan Massacre, above). The Governor declared martial law in the county.
May 19, 1925: Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska.
Today in Labor History May 19, 1942: The Steel Workers Organizing Committee became the United Steelworkers of America.
1940s-1950s
May 19, 1950: Four barges, carrying 420 tons of ammunition, blew up at South Amboy, New Jersey. As a result, 31 dockworkers died and 350 were injured. The blast destroyed nearby businesses and homes, causing $10 million in property damage. The men were loading anti-tank and anti-personnel mines destined for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Three years later, they unearthed sixty-two live mines scattered throughout the waterfront area. Kilgore Manufacturing Company was later charged with 9,000 counts of munitions violations. The indictment documents weighed thirty pounds. The Coast Guard was also cited with negligence in supervising the loading.
1980s
May 19, 1989: Trinidadian Marxist historian and journalist C.L.R. James died. James was the author of The Black Jacobins (1938), Breaking a Boundary (1963), and numerous articles on class and race , West Indian self-determination, cricket, and Marxism. In 1933, he published the pamphlet The Case for West-Indian Self Government. He was a champion of Pan-Africanism and a member of the Friends of Ethiopia, an organization opposed to fascism and the Italian conquest of Ethiopia. He also wrote a play about the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint L’Ouverture, the Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History. Paul Robeson starred in the 1936 British production.
2000s
Today in Labor History May 19, 2018: William Burrus, president of the 360,000-member American Postal Workers Union from 2001-2010, died at age 81. He was the first African-American to be elected president of a national union by direct member voting. Burrus was born in West Virginia. After serving in the U.S. Army, he moved to Cleveland, where he worked sorting mail and joined the union. He helped the local coordination of the national postal strike of 1970. As a result of that strike, postal workers won collective bargaining rights. He served as president of the Cleveland Local of the APWU from 1974 to 1980. And then he became president of the national union in 2001.
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