Scott Burgh, chief law librarian for the City of Chicago Legal Department and a local historian, recently spoke at the "Bronze and Bombs Benefit." The event helped raise funds for filmmaker Paul Retting's documentary about a police monument dedicated at Haymarket Square, as a memorial for Chicago police officers who lost their lives during the Haymarket Affair of May 1886.
The Haymarket Affair is not widely spoken about now, but the importance of that event for the present-day working class and for First Amendment free speech rights could not be more relevant. The Haymarket Affair concerned a labor rally, held in Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886. The rally, intended as a peaceful demonstration to support labor rights turned violent after an individual whose identity is still unknown threw a bomb. Numbers of bystanders were injured and eight Chicago Police officers were killed.
Burgh was most interested in the aftermath of the bombing—the subsequent trial, pleas for clemency to then-Gov. Richard J. Oglesby for the accused and the eventual executions of some of the convicted. August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden and Oscar Neebe were brought to trial and convicted under a combination of murder and conspiracy charges. All were sentenced to hang. "Eight people were charged under conspiracy laws. Essentially they were charged and convicted for the thoughts that they shared," said Burgh. They appealed their convictions to the United States Supreme Court the Court refused to grant a hearing based on the lack of a "federal issue". "How the Court could even have believed that is remarkable. Freedom of Speech? Freedom of Assembly? Those ARE federal issues," added Burgh.
The case became a worldwide sensation. Soon, letters began pouring in from all over the globe in an effort to procure clemency for the accused. In Chicago, civic and business leaders had arguments for and against clemency. "Lyman Gage, then president of the Bank of Chicago was a supporter of clemency for these men and tried to gather a coalition of other businessmen to support them," said Burgh, "But once Marshall Field became involved in the anti-clemency campaign, the business leaders turned on Gage and sided with Field."
Ultimately, Fielden and Schwab both received commuted sentences to life in prison. Louis Lingg, the youngest "conspirator" at age 23 actually blew himself up in his cell only hours before Oglesby issued a stay of execution and granted the commuted sentences. "The rest of the men were hanged. Their letters to Oglesby never asked for clemency. They were very adamant—'Liberty or Death.' So Oglesby never commuted their sentences. These men believed they were innocent and should have received no punishment at all," said Burgh.
The men were all buried near each other in Forest Park. In 1893, the Haymarket Martyr's Monument was raised there by sculptor Albert Weinert. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark and was the only cemetery monument to have received that distinction. "Emma Goldman, also a member of the anarchist movement that the conspirators belonged to, despite having been deported in 1920 for her thoughts, was so moved by the Haymarket Affair and those who were executed that she wanted to be buried by the Martyr's Monument," said Burgh. Despite being deported in life, her remains were brought back from Toronto, Canada, and are now buried near the Martyr's Monument. Goldman was known for many ideas she held but one of her most progressive distinctions was to become the first American to openly defend gay and lesbian individuals. In numerous speeches and letters, she defended the rights of gay men and lesbians to love as they pleased and condemned the fear and stigma associated with homosexuality. She wrote, "It is a tragedy, I feel, that people of a different sexual type are caught in a world which shows so little understanding for homosexuals and is so crassly indifferent to the various gradations and variations of gender and their great significance in life." The men who were tried and executed for their thoughts were of the same social movement that was becoming increasingly popular in the 1890s and 1900s. Goldman is as much a part of the Haymarket Affair as those who were executed.
During the current period of "Occupy" movements and Time Magazine naming "The Protestor" as person of the year, Haymarket becomes a powerful reminder of the importance of our First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceably assemble. Haymarket is also worth remembering, as it reminds those on the streets in New York City; Oakland, Calif.; Egypt; and Syria that they are not alone.
