Wheatland Hop Riot: IWW Farmworkers Protest Conditions, Deputies Kill Four, Leaders Framed

On August 3, 1913, a confrontation between migrant hop pickers and armed deputies at the Durst Ranch in Wheatland, California left four people dead and triggered a massive crackdown on the IWW across California. The violence erupted after workers organized to protest abysmal conditions: no drinking water in 100-degree heat, a single toilet for 2,800 workers, wages lower than advertised, and company stores gouging prices.

Ralph Durst had advertised for 2,700 workers to pick his hop crop, knowing he only needed 1,500. The surplus labor drove down wages and forced desperate workers to accept any conditions. When IWW organizers Blackie Ford and Herman Suhr led a protest, the Yuba County sheriff and a posse of deputized gunmen arrived to break it up. A deputy fired a shotgun into the air to disperse the crowd, triggering panic. In the chaos, the district attorney, a deputy, and two workers were killed.

Ford and Suhr were arrested, charged with second-degree murder under the theory that their organizing caused the violence - even though neither man was armed or near the shooting. Both were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The prosecution established a dangerous precedent: organizers could be held criminally responsible for employer violence against workers. California authorities launched sweeping raids on IWW halls across the state, arresting hundreds. The Wheatland case demonstrated how completely the legal system served agricultural interests, transforming victims of violence into criminals while exonerating those who created intolerable conditions and sent armed men to suppress protest.