Let the voice of the people be heard.
-Albert Parsons
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Monday January 18, 1915
Chicago, Illinois -Lucy Parsons Arrested Leading Protest Against Hunger
Lucy Parsons, widow of Albert Parsons, Martyr of the great 1886 struggle for the eight-hour day, was arrested yesterday while leading a protest procession of Chicago's unemployed and hungry men, women and children. The peaceful protest began in front of Hull House and continued down Halsted Street. The protesters were attacked by police with revolvers drawn after refusing the order to disperse. It seems the protesters had been denied a permit, and were, therefore, making their voices seen and heard without the official sanction of Chicago's city government.
The hungry of Chicago are refusing starve silently, and for walking down the street with banners held aloft, they were attacked by police. Shots were fired by the police, but, thankfully, no one was killed. Thirty mounted men were also deployed against the protesters. They "galloped out under orders to cross the river on the north side and [deployed] into Halsted street along the different intersections between Polk and Madison streets." Nevertheless, the protesters were undeterred.
Lucy Parson was later interviewed:
"I was invited to speak at the meeting and I did so willingly," Mrs. Parsons said to a reporter for THE TRIBUNE who interviewed her in her cell at the Maxwell street station. "I recalled to them that just thirty-years ago here in Chicago I carried a black banner with the one word "hunger" on it, and that I hoped I could carry such a flag again. I did not know it at the time, but just such a banner happened to be in the room."
From the Chicago Daily Tribune of January 18, 1915:
1,500 IDLE RIOT AROUND HULL HOUSE
WOMEN HELP SLUG POLICE; BULLETS FLY
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Haymarket Widow and 20 Others Locked Up After Parade Is Stopped,
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FATHER TUCKER HELD.
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For thirty minutes yesterday afternoon South Halsted street, between Polk and Madison streets, was the scene of pitched battle between mounted and fought police reserves and a "hunger procession" of 1,500 unemployed men, women, boys, and girls.
Shot were fired, clothes were torn, eyes blackened, and heads cracked while clubs, blackjacks, and revolver butts were used with bruising effect on heads, arms, and knuckles.
At the conclusion of the riot Halsted street looked like an armed camp, with squads of police stationed at the corners and mounted men patrolling the middle of the street.
Twenty-one Under Arrest.
As a result, twenty-one persons were placed in cells at the Maxwell and Desplaines streets stations on charges of inciting a riot. Six of them are women. Principal among the prisoners is Father Irwin St. John Tucker, assistant at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Blackstone avenue and Fifty-sixth street, and managing editor of the Christian Socialist.
Three veterans of the famous Haymarket riot participated in the fighting. They were Mrs. Lucy Parsons, widow of Albert Parsons who was hanged for alleged complicity in the riot; Herman Schuettler, first deputy superintendent of police, and Capt. James O'Dea Storen of the Maxwell street station.
[continued below at Women Help Slug Police]
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Riot Views of Different Sides
BY ASSIST. CHIEF SCHUETTLER.
The men had no right to parade without a permit. The officers merely did their duty. I expected trouble. That's why I detailed detectives at the meeting. They disguised themselves to be sure and hear just what the plans were.
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BY JANE ADDAMS.
We have had the unemployed meet on Sundays for seven years at Hull house. The meetings have been perfectly orderly in every case in all that time.
The meeting was called in the name of the League of the Unemployed. I do not think this name stood for much of an organization, J. Eads Howe ordered the hall. He had formerly taken part in the Sunday meetings held all winter at Hull house by the Brotherhood of the Unemployed. I suppose the gathering was the same body of men. I recognized many of the men as the same.
"We Want Work; Not Charity," "We Have Neither Food nor Shelter," and "We Refuse to Starve" were the banners carried by the men in the parade. The meeting seemed to be run off perfectly straight, and the men formed in line outside of the settlement in an orderly fashion.
One Italian who was arrested was passing on Halsted street when the parade was on its way. He was with his wife and children. He was arrested because he remonstrated with some officers when they jostled and pushed his children.
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BY CAPT. STOREN.
It is a wonder to me somebody wasn't killed. The women were fighting just as much as the men. Our policemen had a stubborn fight. I am satisfied that it came out as well as it did. If the policemen had not kept their heads as cool as they did somebody would surely have been killed.
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BY FATHER IRVING ST. JOHN TUCKER.
When I saw men being clubbed for carrying the Lord's prayer I thought the time had come to take a hand. I saw men slugged, with with blood running down their faces.
The police were not attacked, according to the story a lieutenant told me. He said the men were arrested because they had no right to walk in the streets.
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