Today in Labor History: Weekend Edition
March 27—Mother Jones is ordered to leave Colorado, where state authorities accuse her of “stirring up” striking coal miners – 1904
March 28—Martin Luther King, Jr., leads a march of striking sanitation workers, members of AFSCME Local 1733, in Memphis, Tenn. Violence during the march persuades him to return the following week to Memphis, where he was assassinated – 1968
March 29—“Battle of Wall Street,” police charge members of the United Financial Employees’ Union, striking against the New York Stock Exchange and New York Curb Exchange (now known as the American Stock Exchange). Forty-three workers are arrested in what was to be the first and only strike in the history of either exchange – 1948
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Labor Video: Blue Diamond Mine
Jean Ritchie sings about the Blue Diamond Mine, accompanied by classic footage of coal miners. Click here to watch the video.