Haymarket Memorial Marks Ill. Labor Rally

By TARA BURGHART
Sep 16, 12:02 PM (ET)

CHICAGO (AP) - For years, visitors at the troubled site of Haymarket Square left
disappointed: Only a plaque marked the spot where a bomb thrown during an 1886
labor rally killed seven police officers and led to the executions of anarchists
unjustly convicted of the crime.

Police viewed it as a place where their fellow officers died in the line of
duty. Social activists went there to honor the memory of those wrongly
convicted. Union supporters considered it a crucible in the labor movement's
history.

Anti-labor hysteria gripped the country after the bombing, and the site's legacy
in Chicago was too contentious to support a memorial. Now, a large sculpture has
been dedicated there, and text on the memorial acknowledges that Haymarket's
significance "touches on the issues of free speech, the right of public
assembly, organized labor, the fight for the eight-hour workday, law
enforcement, justice, anarchy and the right of every human being to pursue an
equitable and prosperous life."

It took a committee of labor leaders, police officers, historians and city
officials two years of meetings to agree on the statue.

"The unifying theme is it's a tragedy - a human tragedy of people under
difficult circumstances reacting to something beyond their control," said Tim
Samuelson, a city historian who served on the committee.

The committee required artists submitting proposals to include a wagon, since
one was used as a speaker's platform at the Haymarket rally. The wagon
represented the importance of free speech and free assembly - a concept all
panel members agreed on.

The winning design, by Chicago artist Mary Brogger, is a bronze sculpture 15
feet high. Red-brick in color, the statue depicts faceless figures who are
either putting together or taking apart a wagon, depending on the viewer's
perspective.

"The crux of it is that the truth is complex and there are many actions and
reactions that happen simultaneously in any given moment - and it's important to
be reminded of that," Brogger said.

On May 4, 1886, a rally was held near the city's Haymarket Square west of
downtown to protest the death of workers during a labor conflict the night
before.

As the meeting was breaking up, uniformed police approached and asked the crowd
to disperse. A bomb was thrown into police ranks - it was never determined by
whom.

"In the aftermath, the people who organized and spoke at the meeting, and others
who held unpopular political viewpoints were arrested and unfairly tried, even
though none could be tied to the bombing itself," reads the extensive text that
accompanies the monument.

Of the eight men who were brought to trial, four were executed, one died
mysteriously in prison, and three others were sentenced to prison but later
pardoned.

The monument, funded with a $300,000 state grant, is not the first at the
site. A statue of a policeman was erected there in 1889 as a tribute to the
police who died, but it was moved to the police academy after it was blown up
twice during the Vietnam era.

Samuelson said he's not surprised it took 118 years for a Haymarket monument to
be agreed upon by police, labor and city officials.

Dissenters remain - protesters showed up at the monument's Tuesday dedication
waving anarchist flags.

"The impact of what happened at the time to all parties concerned was so
terrible and so emotional that it was passed down through generations,"
Samuelson said. "The animosity continued for generations, just because of the
severity of it."

---

On the Net:

Chicago Historical Society: http://www.chicagohistory.org/dramas/

Illinois Labor History Society: http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/