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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio Hello Again. I'm Eves and you're listening to

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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class, a show where we dropped

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Speaker 1: history knowledge every single day. Today is November eighteen. The

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Speaker 1: day was November eight A general strike began in New Orleans, Louisiana,

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Speaker 1: after it had been postponed twice. The strike ended four

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Speaker 1: days later, with workers winning many of the demands they

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Speaker 1: called for. In May of eighteen, two street car operators

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Speaker 1: in New Orleans one shorter hours, moving from sixteen hour

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Speaker 1: days to twelve hour days, and they won a closed shop,

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Speaker 1: which is when an employer only hires union members. That summer,

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Speaker 1: black and white workers organized many new labor unions, so

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Speaker 1: that forty nine local unions were soon part of the

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Speaker 1: American Federation of Labor or a f L. The unions

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Speaker 1: organized a local labor federation called the working Men's Amalgamate Council,

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Speaker 1: which met in integrated sessions. The late nineteenth century was

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Speaker 1: a time characterized by racial violence, segregation, convict leasing, and

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Speaker 1: the restriction of jobs for black workers, but there were

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Speaker 1: integrated jobs and labor demonstrations. Three racially integrated unions, the

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Speaker 1: Round Freight Teamsters and Loaders Union, the Scalesman's Union, and

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Speaker 1: the Warehousemen and Packers Protective Union made up the so

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Speaker 1: called Triple Alliance. The Triple Alliance went to the Board

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Speaker 1: of Trade, the employer's organization, demanding a preferential union's shop,

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Speaker 1: ten hour day and over time pay, but the Board

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Speaker 1: of Trade announced that it refused to enter into agreements

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Speaker 1: with black people. On October twenty, members of the Triple

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Speaker 1: Alliance went on strike, and the president of the Workingmen's

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Speaker 1: Amalgamated Council said that it's unions would strike if a

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Speaker 1: settlement wasn't reached, but the Board said that it would

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Speaker 1: work with the scalesman and packers, who were mostly white,

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Speaker 1: but not with the teamsters, as most black workers were teamsters,

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Speaker 1: and it went even further to stoke racial fears, saying

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Speaker 1: that the Triple Alliance was threatening to put employers and

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Speaker 1: control of the docks under a quote big black negro.

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Speaker 1: The press even attempted to inflame tensions, accusing white unionists

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Speaker 1: of being sympathetic to or controlled by, black people, and

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Speaker 1: claiming that black strikers were beating people up. But the

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Speaker 1: Triple Alliance and the Council did not fold, and a

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Speaker 1: general strike seemed imminent. Under increasing union pressure, the board

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Speaker 1: was compelled to negotiate a contract, but the bargaining collapsed

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Speaker 1: when the board would not budge on discussing the preferential union,

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Speaker 1: so a general strike began on November eight. About half

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Speaker 1: of the city's workforce, or around twenty five thousand union members,

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Speaker 1: participated in the general strike. Street cars stopped running, the

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Speaker 1: electrical grid stopped working, and the natural gas supply went empty. Firefighting, construction, printing,

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Speaker 1: and street cleaning services were also disrupted. Governor Murphy Foster

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Speaker 1: ordered five thousand state militia troops to New Orleans, but

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Speaker 1: the troops were withdrawn because the reports of chaos and

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Speaker 1: violence were exaggerated. The press continued to claim that black

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Speaker 1: strikers were violent and threats to white supremacy, but unionists

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Speaker 1: did not react to the appeals. Just days after the

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Speaker 1: strike began, the council called off the strike due to

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Speaker 1: the presence of the State militia, which remained outside the city,

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Speaker 1: and the Board of Trade agreed to negotiate. The union

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Speaker 1: went away to increased over time pay and a ten

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Speaker 1: hour day, but the agreement did not include a preferential

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Speaker 1: union shop, and it did not grant recognition to the

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Speaker 1: unions of the Triple Alliance street car Workers union recognition ended.

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Speaker 1: The strike has been deemed a success by some contemporary

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Speaker 1: and current assessments since the strikers won many of their

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Speaker 1: demands and demonstrated racial solidarity. Critics have said that the

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Speaker 1: strike failed since it did not win the union shop.

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Speaker 1: But in the years following the general strike, riots broke

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Speaker 1: out between white and black workers. On the New Orleans docs,

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Speaker 1: I'm each deep Code and hopefully you know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you do yesterday. If there's

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Speaker 1: something I missed in the show today, you can let

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Speaker 1: us know at t D I h C podcast on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: or Instagram. We also accept electronic letters at this day

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Speaker 1: at i heart media dot com. Thanks for listening and

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Speaker 1: we'll see you again tomorrow. For more podcasts for my

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