September in History

Sept. 1, 1903 – Over 30,000 women from 26 trades march in the Chicago Labor Day Parade.

Sept. 2, 1921 – Battle of Blair Mountain, W.Va.: 10,000 striking union miners fight against coal operators for recognition of UMWA. At governor’s request, federal troops are sent in, killing 16 miners.

Sept 1, 1919 – Communist Party USA founded in Chicago.

Sept 4, 1949 – Audience of 25,000 hears African American peace and civil rights activist Paul Robeson sing in outdoor concert in Peekskill, N.Y., after earlier concert was prevented by racist mob.

Sept. 5, 1882 – First Labor Day parade held in New York City.

Sept. 8, 1965 – United Farm Workers begin successful five-year grape strike and boycott in Salinas, Calif.

Sept. 11, 1973 – Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government in Chile overthrown by bloody CIA-backed coup.

Sept. 14, 1929 – Ella Mae Wiggins, union organizer, songwriter and folk singer, killed in Gastonia, N.C., textile workers strike.

Sept. 15, 1963 – Four young Black girls killed in infamous Birmingham, Ala., church bombing.

Sept. 16, 1969 – On Mexican Independence Day, Rosalio Munoz refuses induction into army; action initiated draft resistance and antiwar movement among Mexican Americans.

Sept. 17, 1787 – U.S. Constitution ratified by Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia after struggle for Bill of Rights.

Sept. 19, 1981 – Solidarity Day demonstration in Washington, D.C.: 500,000 workers protest Reagan’s economic policies.

Sept. 22, 1862 – President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in the Confederacy as of Jan. 1, 1863.

Sept. 22, 1919 – The Great Steel Strike: over 365,000 workers strike for the right to organize and for shorter hours, the first general strike in the steel industry. Led by William Z. Foster, an organizer of the American Federation of Labor and later chairman of the Communist Party USA.

Sept. 23, 1868 – Proclamation of Republic of Puerto Rico: El Grito de Lares.

Sept. 28, 1864 – The International Workingmen’s Association, the First International, is founded in London by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.

Sept. 30, 1994 – Flint, Mich.: 11,000 striking UAW workers win fight against speedup at General Motors.