1895 New Orleans dockworkers massacre

Labor riot in Louisiana January 2026 February 2025 The 1895 New Orleans dockworkers massacre was an attack against black, non-union dockworkers by unionized white workers on March 11 and 12, 1895. The mob killed six black workers. The incident had its roots in both economic pressure and racial hatred. The riot marked the end of fifteen years of racially unified unions in New Orleans, for example in the successful 1892 New Orleans general strike just three years before. In the economic slowdown following the Panic of 1893, the Harrison Line of Liverpool led a number of other shippers in announcing, in February 1895, that they were letting 300 organized white workers go, and replacing them with unskilled non-union black workers.Black Laborers Attacked http://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/189 History Engine Richmond.edu 22 April 2016 Union workers had just displayed racial unity in the general strike, even in the face of provocations and harassment from the strongly anti-union New Orleans Times-Democrat, for one example.Daniel Rosenberg New Orleans Dockworkers: Race, Labor, and Unionism 1892-1923 1988 SUNY Press 122–124 978-0-88706-649-8 https://books.google.com/books?id=_yYo_Zjj52gC&pg=PA37 22 April 2016 But this time, under pressure, a "race to the bottom" bidding war between white and black groups developed into violence. Gangs of white screwmen and longshoremen began organized assaults in March. On the 11th, a black dock worker named Philip Fisher was wounded by gunfire.Black Laborers Attacked http://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/189 History Engine Richmond.edu 22 April 2016 The next dawn, a mob of several hundred whites descended on an ocean-going ship being loaded and started firing on black longshoremen. Between this site and a coordinated attack on another cotton vessel upriver, six were killed.Zeiger Robert H. For Jobs and Freedom: Race and Labor in America Since 1865 2014 University Press of Kentucky 41 978-0-8131-4663-8 https://books.google.com/books?id=UpjQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 22 April 2016 The men killed in the massacre were Henry James, Jules Calise Carrebe, Leonard Mallard, William Campbell and two unknown men.National Peace and Justice Memorial for Orleans Parish, Louisiana photographed on July 7, 2019 Governor Murphy J. Foster called in the state militia to reinstate order.Daniel Rosenberg New Orleans Dockworkers: Race, Labor, and Unionism 1892-1923 1988 SUNY Press 37 978-0-88706-649-8 https://books.google.com/books?id=_yYo_Zjj52gC&pg=PA37 22 April 2016 Despite continuing tensions and the race riot of 1900, in the 20th century New Orleans black and white dockworkers would implement racially cooperative work rules, for example, 50/50 representation on jobs. See also List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States 1892 New Orleans general strike References Category:1895 in Louisiana New Orleans New Orleans Category:1895 riots Category:19th-century mass murders in the United States Category:Economy of New Orleans Category:Labor disputes in Louisiana Category:Labor-related riots in the United States Category:Maritime labor disputes in the United States Category:Massacres in 1895 Category:Mass murders in Louisiana Category:Massacres of African Americans Category:Racially motivated violence against African Americans in Louisiana Category:Riots and civil disorder in Louisiana Category:Terrorist incidents in Louisiana Category:Terrorist incidents in the 1890s Category:White American riots in the United States Category:Right-wing terrorist incidents