Today in Labor History June 21, 10 Molly Maguires hang, Civil rights workers disappeared, SCOTUS mor

[Omaha Steve]

June 21


In England, a compassionate parliament declares that children can't be required to work more than 12 hours a day. And they must have an hours' instruction in the Christian Religion every Sunday and not be required to sleep more than two in a bed - 1802

(The Worst Children’s Jobs in History takes you back to the days when being a kid was no excuse for getting out of hard labor. This British book – which will strike a chord with youngsters around the world -- tells the stories of all the children whose work fed the nation, kept trains running, and put clothes on everyone’s backs over the last few hundred years of Britain’s history. In the UCS bookstore now)

10 miners accused of being militant "Molly Maguires" are hanged in Pennsylvania. A private corporation initiated the investigation of the 10 through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested them, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. "The state provided only the courtroom & the gallows," a judge said many years later - 1877

And this:
June 21, 1877 - Ten miners, allegedly members of the Molly Maguires and convicted as murderers, were hanged in Pennsylvania. Historians question whether the Molly Maguires, allegedly a secret miners’ organization, actually existed. Decades after the hangings, the Molly Maguires became familiar to millions of moviegoers through a film by the same name starring Richard Harris and Sean Connery.

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the right of unions to publish statements urging members to vote for a specific congressional candidate, ruling that such advocacy is not a violation of the Federal Corrupt Practices Act - 1948

June 21, 1964 - Civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner disappeared near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Federal agents eventually found their mangled bodies; Klansmen and Mississippi police had kidnapped the activists and beaten them to death with clubs and chains.

100,000 unionists and other supporters march in solidarity with striking Detroit News and Detroit Free Press newspaper workers - 1997

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_06_21_2011

[patrice]

1. K&R!