Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #thibodauxmassacre
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1/ As we celebrate #LaborDay an often overlooked facet is the history of the Labor movement and how workers seeking better pay and conditions often were met with fatal force, extradition or arrest. 
2/ This includes the #GreatRailroadStrike of 1877 in which the National Guard and federal troops were used to suppress the strike and fired into crowds with an estimated 100 deaths nationwide. #LaborDay
3/ The 1886 #BayViewMassacre in Milwaukee in which the state militia opened fire against peaceful demonstrators calling for an 8-hr workday killing 15. #LaborDay
On this day in 1887, an all-white Louisiana militia massacred 60 striking Black sugarcane workers & lynched 2 strike leaders, destroying Black unionized farm labor in the American South for decades. #ThibodauxMassacre
Years after US officially ended Black slavery w/ 13th Amendment, black sugarcane workers conditions were largely unchanged from slavery. They engaged in back-breaking labor for meager pay while living in old slave cabins. They were essentially serfs, indebted to their growers.
To improve their situation, black sugarcane workers reached out to Knights of Labor, who helped them strike for a living wage paid in cash every two weeks. But instead of bargaining, growers fired union members & newspapers circulated false reports of black-on-white violence.
