Knights of Labor was one of the most important early labor organizations in America. It was the first to organize all workers into a single union, rather than into separate trade unions. Its official name was the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor.
Uriah S. Stephens and other Philadelphia tailors founded the Knights in 1869 as a secret fraternal lodge. Anyone except bankers, stockbrokers, professional gamblers, lawyers, and those who sold or manufactured liquor could become members. The organization grew after Terence V. Powderly became its Grand Master Workman in 1879. It became powerful when a strike forced railroads owned by Jay Gould to meet its demands in 1885. Membership rose from about 100,000 to 700,000 within a year. However, the Knights lost a second strike against Gould’s railroads in 1886. That defeat, and the antilabor feelings that followed the Haymarket Riot in Chicago, caused the group’s membership to decline.
See also Haymarket Riot ; Labor movement (The first nationwide labor organizations) .
