On November 2, 1920, something happened that had never happened before in history and is never likely to happen again: a federal prisoner received nearly 1 million write-in votes for president, including 22% of the New York vote.
This wasn't just any prisoner. This was a legendary union leader who was now a political prisoner.
This was Eugene Debs.
"Terrors Reign, The Streets of Chicago Given Over to Howling Mobs of Thieves and Cutthroats."
-Chicago Times headline, 1877
"Never in the history of the world was such an exhibition, where with all the prejudices existing against the black man, when the white wage-earners of New Orleans would sacrifice their means of livelihood to defend and protect their colored fellow workers. With one fell swoop the economic barrier of color was broken down."
- AFL leader Samuel Gompers
[The 1946 coal strike] is the most momentous event in the country's peacetime history."
- Evansville Courier, 1946
When most people think of labor unrest in America they think of the 1930's, or the various major strikes of the 19th Century. The fact is that no year, before or since, saw so many strikes, and such a large percentage of people on strike, or so many industries effected by strikes, as 1946.
Never before had labor unions flexed so much muscle.
Most people think the Red Scare began on February 9, 1950, when Joseph McCarthy produced a piece of paper before the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, and proclaimed...
