May 4, 2018 Hello ,
Your time is precious. May Day
is past.
Still, I'm asking you to spend a few minutes promoting my book. Where do I get the gall?
I
spent ten years trying to get Fannie Never Flinched published because
Fannie's story inspires courage and compassion, and it's a story that's being kept from our kids, a very relevant story not included in school curriculum.
Will you please consider taking a few moments to request that your local library order the
book? Below, I'll tell you why and how. People around the world celebrated May Day this week, usually with one of two different reasons.
TIME made this distinction in 1929, “To old-fashioned people, May Day means flowers, grass, picnics, children, clean frocks. To up-and-doing Socialists and Communists it means speechmaking, parading, bombs, brickbats, conscientious violence. This connotation dates back to May Day, 1886, when some 200,000 U. S. workmen engineered a nationwide strike for an eight-hour
day.”
Socialist and Communists--the ultimate enemies of American ideals, and yet, what these workers wanted was simply to lay down their tools at five o'clock. They were not even asking for Saturdays off.
This was a case of labeling, the type still prevalent in America that allows us to immediately discount a group of people and their concerns. As you know, the words we choose to describe what we see are not idle, they determine what we see.
During the 1886 May Day strike, Chicago police shot into a crowd at the McCormick Reaper Works, killing and wounding strikers.
Workers organized a demonstration to protest police brutality the next day, May 4, in Haymarket Square.
Please bear with me here, I will get to an important point.
Near the end of the Haymarket protest a bomb exploded panicking everyone. Police opened fire on the crowd.
The bomb killed seven policemen. At least four civilians were shot and more than sixty demonstrators injured. A frenzy swept Chicago that night as police rounded up labor leaders and suspected radicals. In addition they arrested
hundreds of workers, many of whom were interrogated and beaten.
Eight men labeled as anarchists were convicted in a sensational and controversial trial in which the jury was considered to be biased and no solid evidence was presented linking the defendants to the bombing. Four of the men were
hanged.
Now here's the point I want to make. The event went down in history under several names, the Haymarket Affair, the Haymarket Riot or the Haymarket Massacre. Which name do you think appears in
school textbooks across the country.
Our kids are taught that this protest against police brutality, this strike for the eight-hour workday, was a riot by workers. To make sense of political issues today like "the right to work," "Obama Care," and immigration. Kids need to know American labor
history.
The Library of Congress puts out curriculum aides for teachers on all sorts of history topics.
You may or may not be shocked at the wording of their labor history lesson.
Sorry, it's long, but read to the
end. The last words are the ones that choked me.
Above: 1877 clash between workers and the Maryland Sixth Regiment, which the governor called out on behalf of the railroad company.
"One especially significant labor upheaval was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
Wage cuts in the railroad industry led to the strike, which began in West Virginia and spread to three additional states over a period of 45 days before being violently ended by a combination of vigilantes, National Guardsmen, and federal troops.
Similar episodes occurred more frequently in the following decades as workers organized and asserted
themselves against perceived injustices."
Here's the part where I go out on a limb and risk you marking me spam. [Please don't. Click unsubscribe if you want to get rid of me.]
It
won't cost you a cent to ask your local library to stock Fannie Never Flinched. The book brings to life the realities of labor history through the life of one woman. It's short, powerful, has great photos and a timeline of major labor events.
Simply give your librarian the name and the author of the book. That's all they need to find it. They might want your library card number, so have it handy.
Thank you for bearing with me. I understand if you can't do this. If you can, I think it's a
small thing that will make a difference. And I will be grateful from the bottom of you heart. Until next week... Have you read a great book? Tell me about it. Have a burning question? Let me know. If you know someone who might enjoy
my newsletter or books, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe below anytime with a single mouse click. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teacher and librarians, visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. My best, Mary
Questions? Comments? Contact me at MaryCronkFarrell@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. |
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