Chicago's Haymarket Affair: A Calm Before the Storm, 8-Hour Workday Rally

The Haymarket Affair, now symbolized by a rection statue, was at first just a movement advocating for an 8-hour workday. The rally in Haymarket Square started off without a hitch, but there was unease brewing beneath the surface. On May 4th, things were about to heat up. The demonstration at the McCormick Harvesting plant earlier had ended in two casualties, setting a tension-filled precedent. August Spies, editor of the German-language Arbeiter-Zeitung newspaper, encouraged the protesters to gather and arm themselves.

They circulated leaflets, rallying the 'Workingmen' to stand up against the oppressive business interests, with the battle cry of 'Appear in Full Force!'. Surprisingly, Spies himself wanted to cool things down, asking for 'Workingmen arm yourselves' to be removed from the final publication. The exhausted police, fed up with the mounting unrest, decided to put a stop to the rally. In a chaotic scene, a bomb was tossed at the officers, resulting in seven police officers and at least four civilians dead, over 40 injured, and the rally suppressed.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons