On Memorial Day, May 30, 1937, Chicago police open fire on peaceful union demonstrators outside Republic Steel Corporation’s South Chicago plant, killing ten people and wounding more than ninety in what becomes known as the Memorial Day Massacre. The police use tear gas, firearms, and clubs …
On July 28, 1932, U.S. Army troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur violently disperse the Bonus Army—43,000 demonstrators including 17,000 World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups—who had marched on Washington, D.C. to demand early payment of service bonus …
Douglas MacArthurHerbert HooverDwight D. EisenhowerWalter WatersBonus Army veterans+1 moremilitary-forceveteransgreat-depressioncivil-libertiesstate-violence
On August 25, 1921, nearly 13,000 armed coal miners began marching from Marmet, West Virginia, toward Logan County to challenge the oppressive company town system that had kept them in wage slavery for decades, triggering the largest armed uprising in the United States since the Civil War. The …
United Mine Workers of AmericaSheriff Don ChafinBaldwin-Felts Detective AgencyPresident Warren Hardinglabor-suppressionstate-violencecorporate-violencefederal-intervention
On November 14, 1917, 33 suffragist prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse in Fairfax County, Virginia, endured a night of systematic torture and abuse that became known as the “Night of Terror.” On orders from prison warden W. H. Whittaker, workhouse guards brutalized the women in what …
Lucy BurnsDora LewisAlice CosuW. H. WhittakerAlice Paul+1 morewomens-suffragestate-violencetorturepolitical-prisonersinstitutional-brutality
On March 3, 1913, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, newly-appointed chairs of NAWSA’s Congressional Committee, organized the first major civil rights march on Washington, D.C. Lawyer and activist Inez Milholland, riding a white horse …
Alice PaulLucy BurnsInez MilhollandIda B. WellsWoodrow Wilsonwomens-suffragestate-violenceracial-segregationmedia-strategyinstitutional-resistance
On July 3, 1894, President Grover Cleveland deployed federal troops to Chicago to crush the Pullman Strike, marking the first time the federal government used an injunction to break a labor action. The strike began on May 11 when Pullman Palace Car Company workers walked out after the company …
Eugene V. DebsAmerican Railway UnionPresident Grover ClevelandAttorney General Richard OlneyPullman Palace Car Companylabor-suppressionstate-violencefederal-intervention
California achieves statehood on September 9, 1850, and the newly formed state legislature immediately begins authorizing and funding militia expeditions explicitly designed to kill Indigenous Californians and drive them from their ancestral lands. Between 1850 and 1861, California governors call …
California State LegislatureCalifornia governorsState militiaIndigenous CaliforniansU.S. Congressindigenous-genocidestate-violencecalifornia-genocideinstitutional-corruptionethnic-cleansing
U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott begin forcibly removing the Cherokee Nation from their ancestral homelands in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama, starting a process that becomes known as the Trail of Tears. President Martin Van Buren, enforcing the fraudulent 1835 Treaty of New …
Martin Van BurenWinfield ScottCherokee NationJohn RossU.S. Army+1 moreethnic-cleansingtrail-of-tearsindian-removalstate-violencemilitary-force+1 more
On the night of August 21, 1831, enslaved preacher Nat Turner leads a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, that kills between 55 and 65 white people over approximately 48 hours before being suppressed by local militias and federal troops. Turner, deeply religious and literate, interpreted a …
Nat TurnerVirginia LegislatureSouthern state governmentsEnslaved populationWhite vigilante mobsslaveryslave-powerstate-violenceinstitutional-racismcivil-liberties+1 more
Denmark Vesey, a free Black carpenter and Methodist leader who purchased his freedom in 1800 after winning a $1,500 lottery, allegedly plans the most extensive slave insurrection in U.S. history, organizing thousands of enslaved and free Blacks in Charleston, South Carolina to overthrow the …
Gabriel, a 24-year-old enslaved blacksmith from Brookfield plantation in Henrico County, Virginia, plans to lead what may be the most extensive slave rebellion in American history up to that point, with an estimated several thousand participants prepared to seize Richmond, kill white inhabitants …