This Day in History

Jan. 13, 1874: The New York City Tompkins Square Riot

Time Periods: 1865
Themes: Labor
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The New York City Tompkins Square Riot occurred on Jan. 13, 1874 during a devastating economic depression.

Illustration of January 13, 1874 riot in Frank Leslie’s newspaper on Jan. 31. Source: Library of Congress.

A demonstration was held to lobby for public works projects to provide jobs and police attacked.

Howard Zinn quotes a newspaper:

Police clubs rose and fell. Women and children ran screaming in all directions. Many of them were trampled underfoot in the stampede for the gates. In the street bystanders were ridden down and mercilessly clubbed by mounted officers.

This is one of many stories of worker protests during this period, described in detail in A People’s History of the United States, Chapter 10: The Other Civil War.

Related Resources
Teaching Guides

The Power in Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 1988. 184 pages.
Role plays and writing activities project high school students into real-life situations to explore the history and contemporary reality of employment (and unemployment) in the U.S.

Profiles

Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Profile.
Overview of the farm labor organization, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, with artwork by Erin Currier.

Teaching Activities (Free)

The Homestead Strike

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 11 pages.
This role play activity on the famous 1892 Homestead Strike, explores the possibility of solidarity among workers of very different backgrounds and at different levels in the workplace hierarchy.

News

Bread and Roses Strike: One of the Great Silences in the School Curriculum

One of the great silences in the mainstream school curriculum is the role that social movements have played in making this a more fair, more peaceful, more democratic world. Students learn little about the collective efforts and strategies involved in the movements to abolish slavery, to demand women’s rights, to end unjust wars, to fight for civil… Read more »