Today in labor history Aug 23, 13 Black soldiers were sentenced to death and 40 to life & much more

[Omaha Steve]

August 23

The U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations is formed by Congress, during a period of great labor and social unrest. After three years, and hearing witnesses ranging from Wobblies to capitalists, it issued an 11-volume report frequently critical of capitalism. The New York Herald characterized the Commission's president, Frank P. Walsh, as "a Mother Jones in trousers" - 1912

August 23, 1917 - Racial tensions between African-American soldiers and white civilians led to the largest murder trial in U.S. history. A group of black soldiers in Houston became fed up with Jim Crow laws and continual harassment from whites. A gunfight broke out, leaving 17 dead. In the ensuing trial of 64 soldiers for murder and mutiny, 13 were sentenced to death and 40 to life imprisonment.

Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, accused of murder and tried unfairly, were executed on this day. The case became an international cause and sparked demonstrations and strikes throughout the world - 1927

And this:
August 23, 1927 - Despite international protest, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Massachusetts. In the decades since, their case has come to symbolize the persecution faced by those who speak out on behalf of the working class. "If it had not been for this thing I might have lived my life among scorning men," Vanzetti said shortly before his death. "I might have died unmarked, a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life could we hope to do such work for tolerance, for justice, for man's understanding of men, as we do now by accident. Our words -- our lives -- our pains -- nothing. The taking of our lives -- the lives of a good shoemaker and poor fish peddler -- all. This last moment belongs to us -- this last agony is our triumph."

For more on the Sacco and Vanzetti case, go to http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/SaccoV/SaccoV.htm and http://www.courttv.com/archive/greatesttrials/sacco.vanzetti/


Seven merchant seamen crewing the SS Baton Rouge Victory lost their lives when the ship was sunk by Viet Cong action en route to Saigon - 1966

Farm Workers Organizing Committee (to later become United Farm Workers of America) granted a charter by the AFL-CIO - 1966

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_08_23_2010