What Was Chicago’s Memorial Day Massacre?

On May 30, 1937, a group of protestors made up of local steelworkers, their families, and supporters approached Republic Steel on Chicago’s East Side near the Indiana border. Some 300 police officers met the protestors. The protestors were unarmed, but the police opened fire, killing 10 and injuring more than 100 others.

The Memorial Day Massacre was a dark moment in labor history, emerging at a time when labor rights were on the upswing, after a period in which organizing and strikes had been largely unsuccessful or even violent, such as the 1894 Pullman strike. In 1935, the National Labor Relations Act (also called the Wagner Act) was signed into law, guaranteeing workers the right to organize unions, pursue collective bargaining, and go on strike. 

The 1937 protest in Chicago was part of a larger demonstration of steelworkers across the Midwest called the “Little Steel Strike” against some 30 smaller steel companies. Two months prior to the 1937 massacre, “big steel” company U.S. Steel had signed a union contract with the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC). Unionists from the SWOC and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) sought a similar agreement, but the little steel companies wouldn’t budge on the unions’ demands for a minimum wage, an eight-hour work day, a 40-hour work week, overtime pay, better safety standards, and more. Republic Steel even hired spies referred to as “stool pigeons” to infiltrate union meetings and report back to company officials.

The conflict came to a dramatic crescendo on Memorial Day. The union members, their families, neighbors, supporters, and activists gathered at a local tavern and union headquarters called Sam’s Place. It was a diverse faction, with union members of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Women who had become active in the labor movement showed up in large numbers, too. After a picnic lunch, the protestors set out across a field to march peacefully toward Republic Steel. But the company was prepared: Before the protest, it had purchased tear gas and clubs to give to the Chicago police. The nearly 300 police officers stopped the march from advancing, and when a few protestors confronted the officers asking to continue their march, the police released the tear gas, began beating the protestors, and fired into the crowd. Chaos ensued. Several dozen people – including women and children – were shot, and nearly a hundred were injured from the beatings. Ten people died from gunshot wounds. 

The true account of the day’s events was initially suppressed. According to the Chicago History Museum, newspapers like the New York Times and the Chicago Daily Tribune painted an inaccurate picture of the protestors, claiming that they had become violent before police opened fire. Paramount News eventually released newsreel footage that showed what really happened as part of a congressional investigation into the massacre. 

The conflict was not unique to Chicago. Other Little Steel strike actions that summer turned violent in Ohio, too, but Chicago’s was the deadliest. A sculpture at 117th Street and Avenue O (the former location of Sam’s Place) commemorates the event – a steel tube representing each of the 10 protestors killed.