Haymarket Riot took place during a labor protest rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 4, 1886. The rioting occurred after someone threw a bomb that fatally wounded seven policemen and one civilian. In the rioting, the police and the crowd exchanged gunfire, and many police officers and spectators were wounded. The Haymarket Riot increased antilabor feelings and weakened the radical element in American labor. It also strengthened the movement toward “pure and simple” unionism that condemned violence.
The riot occurred during a time when thousands of workers across the country were periodically on strike. It developed from a fight between strikers and strikebreakers on May 3, 1886, at an industrial plant in Chicago. Several workers were killed or wounded during the fight, leading some angry labor leaders to call for armed action by workers and a rally in Haymarket Square the next day. These leaders were anarchists–that is, people who wanted to abolish government authority. When police tried to break up the rally, an unknown person threw the bomb. A riot followed.
On Aug. 20, 1886, eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy against the police. Although they were never found guilty of throwing the bomb or of causing the deaths, seven were sentenced to death and the eighth to prison. In 1887, four of the seven men were hanged, one committed suicide, and the remaining two were sentenced to prison again. In 1893, the three survivors were pardoned by Governor John P. Altgeld of Illinois, who declared that the evidence had been insufficient to support the charges.
