The Lunchtime Theater - Chicago Memorial Day Massacre of 1937, in two parts.

THE DIGITAL RESEARCH LIBRARY OF ILLINOIS HISTORY JOURNAL™ PRESENTS

THE LUNCHTIME THEATER.

Chicago Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 - part 1

Chicago Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 - part 2

In the Memorial Day massacre of 1937, the Chicago Police Department shot and killed ten unarmed demonstrators in Chicago, on May 30, 1937. The incident took place during the "Little Steel Strike" in the United States. The incident arose after U.S. Steel signed a union contract but smaller steel manufacturers (called 'Little Steel'), including Republic Steel, refused to do so. In protest, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) called a strike.

On Memorial Day, hundreds of sympathizers gathered at Sam's Place, headquarters of the SWOC. As the crowd marched across the prairie towards the Republic Steel mill, a line of Chicago policemen blocked their path. The foremost protesters argued their right to continue. The police, feeling threatened, fired on the crowd. As the crowd fled, police bullets killed 10 people and injured 30. Nine people were permanently disabled and another 28 had serious head injuries from police clubbing plus another 100 others were badly beaten with clubs.

Years later, one of the protesters, Mollie West, recalled a policeman yelling to her that day, "Get off the field or I'll put a bullet in your back." No policemen were ever prosecuted.

A Coroner's Jury declared the killings to be "justifiable homicide". The press often called it a labor or red riot. President Roosevelt responded to a union plea, "The majority of people are saying just one thing, {A plague on both your houses}." In the wake of the massacre, the newsreel of the event was suppressed for fear of creating, in the words of an official at Paramount News agency, "mass hysteria."

Today, on the site of Sam's Place stands the union hall of the United Steelworkers and a memorial to the 10 people who died in 1937.

Lost Towns of Illinois - The Village of Forksville, Illinois.

Originally named the Forks before any houses were built. Sometime later it was officially named Forksville for its location at the fork of the McHenry-Chicago and Little Fort (Waukegan) roads, in Lake County, Illinois. At the beginning of the Village's settlement, there were about 150 people living there.

Huson & Booth owned the only general store in Forksville. F. Gale owned the hotel which had a handful of rooms. There were three lime kilns that burn over 3,000 bushels a year. The village had two boot and shoe makers that were owned by J. M. Delaree and David Lewis. Forksville had one cooper shop which was also owned by D. Lewis, and one blacksmith shop. Dr. Malindy was the physician and S. S. Hamilton, Esq, was an attorney. Considerable winter wheat was raised in the village.

The Forksville post office was established on March 24, 1848 with David Lewis being appointed the first postmaster. Forksville was surveyed and laid out October 12, 1849. 

David Lewis served as postmaster until May 12, 1851. The post office was renamed to Volo on November 27, 1868 (possibly at the suggestion of Greek immigrants who named it for the town of Volo (Volos) in eastern Greece. There were a total of thirteen postmaster appointments until the post office was discontinued on June 14, 1904, and the mail was ordered to be sent to Round Lake.

The June 7, 1851, Gazette announced that the road was planked to Hainesville, and that it was planned to go on six miles further to Forksville. Seven hundred thousand feet of planks were on hand for the extension.

Before 1868 the Forksville log school-house gave way to a frame one which was in use until about 1915.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.