1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,560 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. In June 4 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:20,880 Speaker 1: of last year, we did an episode on the Haymarket Riot, 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:25,160 Speaker 1: which is also called the Haymarket massacre and the Haymarket incident, 6 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:28,320 Speaker 1: a lot of names for it. The briefest of all 7 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:32,480 Speaker 1: recaps this is one sentence. A rally that was held 8 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: to support a strike for an eight hour work day 9 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:38,920 Speaker 1: ended in violence after police ordered the remaining crowd to 10 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:44,000 Speaker 1: disperse and somebody threw a bomb into their ranks. In 11 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:48,640 Speaker 1: that episode, we mentioned Lucy Parsons. Her husband, Albert, was 12 00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:51,240 Speaker 1: one of the speakers at this rally, and he wasn't 13 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,200 Speaker 1: involved in planning the rally. He could not have thrown 14 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 1: the bomb, but he was convicted on charges of conspiracy 15 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:00,760 Speaker 1: and he was hanged. So that early there episode was 16 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,560 Speaker 1: not really about Lucy Parsons. We didn't talk about her 17 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,080 Speaker 1: much at all, but as all of this was happening, 18 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:10,000 Speaker 1: she was an activist in her own right, and her 19 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:14,360 Speaker 1: work evolved and continued for decades after her husband's execution. 20 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,480 Speaker 1: She became one of the most notorious anarchists in the 21 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:22,120 Speaker 1: United States in the twentieth century. The Chicago Police Department 22 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:28,440 Speaker 1: called her more dangerous than a thousand rioters, but her activism, 23 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:30,679 Speaker 1: in spite of the fact she was so reviled in 24 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:33,959 Speaker 1: that way, it was consistently focused on improving the lives 25 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:37,039 Speaker 1: of workers and poor people, and immigrants and people who 26 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:40,679 Speaker 1: were unemployed or homeless. Her name has come up in 27 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:45,240 Speaker 1: a bunch of random asidnes and researched for multiple other 28 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:47,640 Speaker 1: episodes since then, so I have moved her up to 29 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:51,240 Speaker 1: the top of the list. Some aspects of Lucy Parson's 30 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: life are tricky to pin down. We have a wealth 31 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:57,480 Speaker 1: of detail about her as an adult, lots of names 32 00:01:57,480 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: and dates and places she traveled and the work she did, 33 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:03,400 Speaker 1: and a lot of her writing has also survived, but 34 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:06,520 Speaker 1: we often don't know her thoughts or motivations on some 35 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:09,680 Speaker 1: of the choices she made. She died in a fire 36 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:12,919 Speaker 1: at her home in nine which destroyed some of her 37 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: books and some of her personal papers. Afterward, police and 38 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: the FBI seized what was left. It's not clear what 39 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 1: happened to those materials, but it's possible that some of 40 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:28,200 Speaker 1: it could have shed light on some unanswered questions and 41 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: beyond the loss of her personal papers, parsons racial and 42 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,600 Speaker 1: ethnic background was the subject of a lot of discussion 43 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:40,320 Speaker 1: and rumored during her lifetime. After she and Albert moved 44 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:44,079 Speaker 1: from Waco, Texas to Chicago, Illinois. Both of them were 45 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: really only consistent about one thing in this regard, and 46 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,239 Speaker 1: that was that she did not have African ancestry. At 47 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:56,080 Speaker 1: various points she said that her family was Spanish or Mexican, 48 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:00,600 Speaker 1: or indigenous, or some combination of those, and there were 49 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:03,600 Speaker 1: also times when she just said that it was nobody's business. 50 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:07,160 Speaker 1: After her husband's conviction, she went on a speaking and 51 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: fundraising tour to support a clemency campaign. A reporter during 52 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:15,160 Speaker 1: that tour asked her about her background at her first stop, 53 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,040 Speaker 1: and she said, quote, I am not a candidate for office, 54 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:20,960 Speaker 1: and the public have no right to my past. I 55 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:23,280 Speaker 1: am out to nothing to the world and people care 56 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 1: nothing of me. I am battling for a principle. But 57 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 1: historian Jacqueline Jones published a biography in seventeen called Goddess 58 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: of Anarchy, The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical, 59 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:41,520 Speaker 1: and in this biography she documented some details of parsons 60 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 1: life before moving to Chicago. These details, a lot of them, 61 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:50,560 Speaker 1: contradict what Parsons said herself, and by all appearances, they 62 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:54,400 Speaker 1: are things that she intentionally tried to hide. But again, 63 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 1: while this biography clarified some specifics, we don't have documentation 64 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: of parsons thought process or her motivations after moving to Chicago. 65 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:09,280 Speaker 1: Lucy Parsons publicly maintained that she had been born in Waco, Texas, 66 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,880 Speaker 1: but Jones traced her birth to Virginia in eighteen fifty one. 67 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,960 Speaker 1: Parsons mother was an enslaved woman named Charlotte, and her 68 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 1: father was white, probably Charlotte's enslaver, Thomas J. Tolliver. In 69 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:27,160 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, Tolliver moved to McLennan County, Texas, taking 70 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:30,719 Speaker 1: at least part of his enslaved workforce with him. This 71 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,280 Speaker 1: included Charlotte, her twelve year old daughter, Lucia, and her 72 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 1: seven year old son, Tanner. Lucia would grow up to 73 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:41,520 Speaker 1: be known as Lucy Parsons. To be clear, these people 74 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:45,600 Speaker 1: had been declared free under the Emancipation Proclamation, but it 75 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: would have been even harder for the federal government to 76 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:51,480 Speaker 1: enforce this in Texas, which may well have been one 77 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:55,480 Speaker 1: of the reasons Tolliver took them there. About three years 78 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:59,320 Speaker 1: after arriving in Texas, Tolliver went back east to get married. 79 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:02,840 Speaker 1: This Civil War was over at this point, but news 80 00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 1: of the war's end and the abolition of slavery had 81 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,719 Speaker 1: been really slow to reach Texas. That's usually noted as 82 00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:14,560 Speaker 1: happening on June nine, eighteen sixty five, when federal troops 83 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:18,360 Speaker 1: arrived in Galveston, Texas. Today, that is what's observed as 84 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:22,880 Speaker 1: the Juneteenth Holiday. Life for black people in Texas was 85 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: still extraordinarily dangerous. The Texas legislature had implemented racist black 86 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:33,480 Speaker 1: codes that restricted black people's behavior and enacted harsh punishments 87 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:36,680 Speaker 1: for things like owning weapons or insulting a white person. 88 00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:41,480 Speaker 1: Former enslavers essentially treated their free workers as though they 89 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: were still enslaved, and there were gangs of white vigilantes 90 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 1: who terrorized the state's black population. It appears that Charlotte 91 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:53,040 Speaker 1: took Tolliver's absence when he went back to east to 92 00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:56,720 Speaker 1: get married, as an opportunity to flee from rural mcglennan 93 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:00,640 Speaker 1: County to Waco, which was the county's largest city. Along 94 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: with her children. Waco shared the same dangers as other 95 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:07,760 Speaker 1: parts of Texas that were home to freed people, but 96 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:10,120 Speaker 1: it was also home to a growing community of black 97 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:14,320 Speaker 1: people who were establishing their own churches, schools, and businesses 98 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:18,320 Speaker 1: and working to protect themselves from violence. There were also 99 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:20,680 Speaker 1: white people in Waco who were working to try to 100 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:24,120 Speaker 1: protect the black community and work towards equal rights. One 101 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:26,880 Speaker 1: of them was Albert Parsons, who had served in the 102 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:30,000 Speaker 1: Confederate Army during the war but had become a radical 103 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:34,279 Speaker 1: Republican after it was over. After her family arrived in 104 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:38,080 Speaker 1: Waco in eighteen sixty six, Lucia found work where she could, 105 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:41,400 Speaker 1: including working as a seamstress and a cook, and she 106 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:45,400 Speaker 1: also went to school. She started a romantic relationship with 107 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:48,360 Speaker 1: a man named Oliver Benton, and he paid for her 108 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,680 Speaker 1: tuition in her books at the school. Some sources give 109 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:54,560 Speaker 1: Oliver's last name as gay Things, that was the last 110 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:58,599 Speaker 1: name of his former enslaver. A year or two after 111 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:03,279 Speaker 1: arriving in Waco, Lucia's mother married a man named Charlie Carter, 112 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:07,280 Speaker 1: and she gave her children, including Lucia, his last name. 113 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:10,960 Speaker 1: Sometime between the late summer of eighteen sixty eight and 114 00:07:11,080 --> 00:07:14,920 Speaker 1: July of eighteen sixty nine, Lucia gave birth to a baby, 115 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: who she named Champ. According to Oliver Benton, he and 116 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:22,440 Speaker 1: Lucia were married and he was the baby's father, although 117 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 1: there is no record of this marriage. Marriages between enslaved 118 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:30,520 Speaker 1: people had not been legally recognized, and after slavery was abolished, 119 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:33,440 Speaker 1: it was common for free people to commit to their 120 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 1: own marriages without going through legal paperwork, so the details 121 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:41,720 Speaker 1: aren't clear, but Champ seems to have died in infancy. 122 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:45,920 Speaker 1: Then on September eighteen seventy two, twenty two year old 123 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:49,640 Speaker 1: Lucia Carter married twenty eight year old Albert Parsons. Although 124 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:53,320 Speaker 1: the name she gave the officiant was Ella Hall, the 125 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: many variations of her name that she gave to people 126 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:00,600 Speaker 1: in subsequent years sometimes included some variation on Ella as 127 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: a middle name and Hall as her maiden name. Albert 128 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: Parsons had been working extensively with the radical faction of 129 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:12,080 Speaker 1: the Republican Party in Texas. He had stridently advocated for 130 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:16,240 Speaker 1: black people in Texas to have full and unrestricted access 131 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:19,200 Speaker 1: to the rights they were guaranteed under the Constitution. He 132 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,840 Speaker 1: had helped black people register to vote, and he had 133 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 1: been made a lieutenant colonel in the state Militia, where 134 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 1: he was tasked with protecting the black community in several 135 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 1: counties where they were being targeted with racist violence. He had, also, 136 00:08:33,040 --> 00:08:35,080 Speaker 1: in addition to all of this, worked for the Office 137 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:39,480 Speaker 1: of Public Instruction. Although at least some radical Republican leaders 138 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:43,800 Speaker 1: endorsed interracial relationships, it would have been really unusual for 139 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: a white man in parsons position to marry a black woman, 140 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 1: and this marriage took place during a very narrow window 141 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:55,680 Speaker 1: in which interracial marriages were legal in Texas at all. Earlier, 142 00:08:55,760 --> 00:08:58,760 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy two, the state Supreme Court had issued 143 00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:01,760 Speaker 1: a ruling in Honey ver As Clark that affirmed that 144 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 1: interracial marriage was legal, but just weeks after their marriage, 145 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:09,120 Speaker 1: the Texas legislature passed a new law that banned it. 146 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,520 Speaker 1: The Republican Party also lost control of the Texas government 147 00:09:13,559 --> 00:09:17,480 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy three, and the newly installed legislature started 148 00:09:17,559 --> 00:09:20,600 Speaker 1: repealing the laws that had been passed to try to 149 00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:23,760 Speaker 1: protect the state's black population and their rights. During the 150 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:29,040 Speaker 1: post war reconstruction, the Parsons Is started facing increasingly over 151 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:33,520 Speaker 1: racism and threats of violence. Ku Klux Klan activity started 152 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:37,120 Speaker 1: to increase all through Texas, and this same pattern was 153 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:41,520 Speaker 1: playing out all over, especially the southern US. In the 154 00:09:41,559 --> 00:09:44,520 Speaker 1: face of all of this, the couple decided to leave, 155 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:48,160 Speaker 1: and it appears that as they traveled north, Lucia decided 156 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:51,200 Speaker 1: to put her past behind her, changing her first name 157 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:55,559 Speaker 1: to Lucy and claiming Texas as her birthplace. At various 158 00:09:55,600 --> 00:09:57,560 Speaker 1: points from here on out, she would say that her 159 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:01,320 Speaker 1: maiden name had been Gonzalez, Diaz or Hall. You will 160 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:04,440 Speaker 1: often see her full name written out as Lucy Eldne 161 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:08,240 Speaker 1: Gonzalez Parsons. We'll talk about what happened when they got 162 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:20,880 Speaker 1: to Chicago after a quick sponsor break. At the start 163 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:24,120 Speaker 1: of the show, we mentioned that we don't have documentation 164 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 1: of Lucy parsons thoughts or feelings or motivations about a 165 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:30,320 Speaker 1: lot of the decisions that she made in her life, 166 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:34,840 Speaker 1: but we can draw some pretty likely conclusions about why 167 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:37,720 Speaker 1: she took on a new identity and tried to leave 168 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:41,600 Speaker 1: her past behind her when she moved away from Waco 169 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 1: to Chicago, Illinois. She had already lived through so much 170 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:50,160 Speaker 1: trauma and she was acutely aware of the limits that 171 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:54,560 Speaker 1: white society tried to impose on black people's lives. Her 172 00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:58,040 Speaker 1: appearance would have prevented her from passing as white, but 173 00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:02,720 Speaker 1: presenting herself instead at as Mexican and Indigenous rather than black, 174 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 1: meant that she might have access to spaces that she 175 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:10,280 Speaker 1: would have been shut out of otherwise. Also, today, Chicago 176 00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:13,440 Speaker 1: has one of the largest populations of Indigenous people of 177 00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:16,320 Speaker 1: any city in the US, but that was not the 178 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:19,840 Speaker 1: case in the late nineteenth century. The vast majority of 179 00:11:19,880 --> 00:11:22,640 Speaker 1: Indigenous people living in the Great Lakes area had been 180 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:26,200 Speaker 1: forced out or killed. In the eighteen thirties, there also 181 00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:28,800 Speaker 1: would have been very few Hispanic people in the city, 182 00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:33,920 Speaker 1: and although Chicago's Black population was growing rapidly, it's still 183 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:38,560 Speaker 1: measured less than one percent of Chicago's total population. And 184 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:41,360 Speaker 1: this meant that there wasn't a large community of color 185 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:44,080 Speaker 1: that Lucy could have assimilated with, if that was what 186 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:47,080 Speaker 1: she had wanted to do. But it also meant that 187 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:49,800 Speaker 1: she wasn't likely to run into someone who either knew 188 00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:53,240 Speaker 1: her from before or knew enough about the identities she 189 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:58,120 Speaker 1: was claiming to question those claims. Instead, the community where 190 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:01,520 Speaker 1: Lucy and Albert Parsons found home was one that was 191 00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:05,920 Speaker 1: made up primarily of immigrants from Central Europe. The proportion 192 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:08,360 Speaker 1: varies a little bit over the last half of the 193 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:12,320 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, but immigrants made up between forty and fifty 194 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:16,640 Speaker 1: percent of Chicago's population at the time. The easiest place 195 00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:19,600 Speaker 1: for them to find work was in Chicago's factories, and 196 00:12:19,679 --> 00:12:22,800 Speaker 1: at some point during these years, as many as seventy 197 00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:26,760 Speaker 1: percent of Chicago's factory workers had been born outside the US. 198 00:12:27,640 --> 00:12:30,480 Speaker 1: Albert got a job as a printer, and he started 199 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:32,560 Speaker 1: doing the same kind of activism that he had been 200 00:12:32,559 --> 00:12:35,520 Speaker 1: doing back in Texas, but instead of working through the 201 00:12:35,559 --> 00:12:38,560 Speaker 1: Republican Party to try to improve the lives of black people, 202 00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:42,199 Speaker 1: he was working with socialists to improve the lives of workers, 203 00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:46,720 Speaker 1: particularly immigrants. In addition to all the typical issues that 204 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:51,040 Speaker 1: were common in rapidly growing industrial cities, unemployment was an 205 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:54,040 Speaker 1: enormous issue in Chicago. With Lucy and Elbert got there 206 00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:57,040 Speaker 1: in the wake of the Panic of eighteen seventy three, 207 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:00,880 Speaker 1: huge numbers of people were out of work. People who 208 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 1: could find jobs were often working long hours in just 209 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:09,199 Speaker 1: grueling conditions for very low pay with no job security. 210 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:13,800 Speaker 1: Albert and Lucy became active in Chicago's Social Democratic Party 211 00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:18,240 Speaker 1: and First International, but both of these organizations were short lived. 212 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:22,960 Speaker 1: After those organizations were disbanded, Albert joined the Workingman's Party 213 00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:25,960 Speaker 1: of the United States, or the w p USA, and 214 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:29,840 Speaker 1: started hosting meetings of that organization in the Parsons home. 215 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:34,120 Speaker 1: Like First International, this had been started by followers of 216 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:38,840 Speaker 1: Karl Marx. Albert also started running for local office as 217 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:42,000 Speaker 1: a socialist. He ran for lots of different offices over 218 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:44,600 Speaker 1: the years. He did not win any of his elections, though. 219 00:13:45,559 --> 00:13:48,880 Speaker 1: A series of railroad strikes took place around the US 220 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy seven, collectively known as the Great Railroad Strike. 221 00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:56,720 Speaker 1: The economic depression that had followed the Panic of eighteen 222 00:13:56,760 --> 00:14:00,040 Speaker 1: seventy three was still ongoing. In the first wave of 223 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:04,040 Speaker 1: strikes started after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad announced that 224 00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:08,000 Speaker 1: it was cutting its workers pay by ten percent. Albert 225 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:10,920 Speaker 1: gave a speech during all this that began quote, we 226 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:15,120 Speaker 1: are assembled here as the Grand Army of Starvation. Some 227 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:19,640 Speaker 1: of the demonstrations surrounding these railroad strikes became quite violent. 228 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:24,080 Speaker 1: In some cases, striking workers destroyed bridges and rails and 229 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:28,400 Speaker 1: railroad cars. It's estimated that more than a hundred thousand 230 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:31,040 Speaker 1: workers took part in these strikes and then at least 231 00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:34,840 Speaker 1: a hundred people were killed. This was the first time 232 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:37,480 Speaker 1: that federal troops were deployed to try to put an 233 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: end to a strike. Although the w p USA didn't 234 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:46,240 Speaker 1: organize the railroad strikes themselves, it did organize demonstrations and 235 00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:50,000 Speaker 1: general strikes in support of the railroad workers, especially in 236 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:54,200 Speaker 1: Chicago and St. Louis. Although the strikes didn't result in 237 00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:57,760 Speaker 1: many improvements for the workers, membership in the w p 238 00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:02,680 Speaker 1: USA grew in conjunction with the parties increased visibility. Lucy 239 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:07,200 Speaker 1: Parsons described this as a turning point. It was definitely 240 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:11,400 Speaker 1: a turning point for the Parsons family as well. Albert 241 00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:14,680 Speaker 1: lost his job because of his work during the strike, 242 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:19,440 Speaker 1: and other employers refused to hire him. Lucy expanded her 243 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:22,560 Speaker 1: sewing work into a bigger business to support them. It 244 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:24,600 Speaker 1: went from being kind of her own sewing that she 245 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:28,520 Speaker 1: was taking into Parsons and Company, manufacturer of ladies and 246 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 1: children's clothing. She also started hosting meetings of the International 247 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:37,160 Speaker 1: Ladies Garment Workers Union with her friend, labor organizer Lizzie Swank. 248 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:41,360 Speaker 1: The Socialist Labor Party was established in December of eighteen 249 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:45,440 Speaker 1: seventy seven, and Lucy started writing articles and poems for 250 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:49,360 Speaker 1: its publication, which was known as Socialist. In the summer 251 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:52,240 Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy eight, she helped found the Chicago Working 252 00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:56,479 Speaker 1: Women's Union to organize women who worked as store clerks, servants, 253 00:15:56,480 --> 00:16:00,320 Speaker 1: and seamstresses. The union was under the umbrella of the 254 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:03,680 Speaker 1: Council of Trade and Labor Unions, and Lucy attended the 255 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:07,520 Speaker 1: Council's meetings as well. In addition to all of that, 256 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:10,880 Speaker 1: she and Albert had a son, who they named Albert Jr. 257 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:14,440 Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy nine. They also had a daughter, Lula, 258 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:17,400 Speaker 1: who was born in eighteen eighty one. In the early 259 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:21,800 Speaker 1: eighteen eighties, Lucy and Albert shifted their focus from socialism 260 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:25,840 Speaker 1: to anarchy, leaving the Socialist Labor Party for the International 261 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:31,000 Speaker 1: Working People's Association. They had become frustrated with the socialist movement, 262 00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:34,360 Speaker 1: which they thought was focused on reforming a system that 263 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:38,080 Speaker 1: really just needed to be totally dismantled. Albert was also 264 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:40,960 Speaker 1: frustrated that many of the labor rights activists he had 265 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:44,000 Speaker 1: been working with hadn't really supported him. When he was 266 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:47,240 Speaker 1: forced out of the printing industry following the Great Railroad Strike. 267 00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:53,280 Speaker 1: This included his leaving the National Typographical Union. Anarchist organizations 268 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:57,720 Speaker 1: and publications frequently used violent rhetoric and their calls to 269 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:01,840 Speaker 1: overthrow capitalism and other systems of oppression, and some of 270 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:08,480 Speaker 1: them also advocated actual violence, including printing instructions for making bombs. 271 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:13,040 Speaker 1: So anarchists, including Albert and Lucy Parsons, got a lot 272 00:17:13,119 --> 00:17:18,200 Speaker 1: of attention from newspapers and from law enforcement. Police officers, 273 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:24,040 Speaker 1: Pinkerton agents, detectives and others infiltrated anarchist meetings and plain clothes, 274 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:27,320 Speaker 1: and then sometimes the organizers of those meetings tried to 275 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:30,800 Speaker 1: use this to their own advantage. Sometimes they would intentionally 276 00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:34,120 Speaker 1: use more extreme language when they knew that they were 277 00:17:34,119 --> 00:17:38,359 Speaker 1: being watched. The idea here was stoking fear of what 278 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:41,600 Speaker 1: their movement might do, and then trying to use that 279 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:46,080 Speaker 1: fear as leverage to reach their goals. Lucy started writing 280 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:49,280 Speaker 1: for the i w p as publication The Alarm, which 281 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:52,600 Speaker 1: was one of seven anarchist publications in Chicago, but the 282 00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:56,800 Speaker 1: only one that was printed in English. Her article two Tramps, 283 00:17:56,840 --> 00:18:01,000 Speaker 1: the Unemployed, the disinherited, and Miserable, published in October four 284 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:06,080 Speaker 1: four became a widely distributed key document within the American 285 00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:11,160 Speaker 1: anarchist movement in the late nineteenth century. It began quote 286 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:14,600 Speaker 1: a word to the thirty thousand, now tramping the streets 287 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:19,000 Speaker 1: of this great city, with hands in pockets, gazing listlessly 288 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:22,480 Speaker 1: about you at the evidences of wealth and pleasure of 289 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:26,840 Speaker 1: which you own no part, not sufficient even to purchase 290 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:29,520 Speaker 1: yourself a bit of food with which to appease the 291 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:33,639 Speaker 1: pangs of hunger now gnawing at your vitals. It is 292 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:37,600 Speaker 1: with you and the hundreds of thousands of others similarly 293 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:41,080 Speaker 1: situated in this great land of plenty, that I wish 294 00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:45,240 Speaker 1: to have a word. Parsons then meditated on the fact 295 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,480 Speaker 1: that so many people had been toiling for decades but 296 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:51,199 Speaker 1: had nothing to show for it, and she called for 297 00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:55,560 Speaker 1: a total change to the industrial system. This piece ended 298 00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:59,719 Speaker 1: with quote, each of you hungry tramps who read these lines, 299 00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:03,760 Speaker 1: vail yourself of those little methods of warfare which science 300 00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,760 Speaker 1: has placed in the hands of the poor man, and 301 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:10,399 Speaker 1: you will become a power in this or any other land. 302 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:16,719 Speaker 1: Learn the use of explosives. In six Lucy published one 303 00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:20,200 Speaker 1: of her few pieces that directly referenced the idea of race. 304 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:24,439 Speaker 1: In January of that year, Afro Indigenous brothers Ed and 305 00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:29,439 Speaker 1: Charlie Brown were delivering molasses and Carrollton, Mississippi, and accidentally 306 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:33,040 Speaker 1: ran into a white man named Robert Moore. More than 307 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,399 Speaker 1: a month later, More told lawyer James Liddell about it. 308 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:39,960 Speaker 1: Liddell had an altercation with the Browns that ended in 309 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:43,160 Speaker 1: a gunfight, and the Browns tried to press charges against him. 310 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,520 Speaker 1: White people were outraged at the idea of black people 311 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:51,840 Speaker 1: pressing charges against a white man. An armed white mob 312 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:55,959 Speaker 1: stormed the courthouse during an evidentiary hearing, opening fire and 313 00:19:56,080 --> 00:19:59,640 Speaker 1: killing both Ed and Charlie Brown, along with multiple other 314 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:02,879 Speaker 1: black people who were in the courtroom. This happened on 315 00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:06,080 Speaker 1: March seventeenth, eight six, and it became known as the 316 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:10,840 Speaker 1: Carroll County Courthouse massacre. A couple of weeks later, Lucy 317 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:14,840 Speaker 1: published a piece called The Negro Let him leave politics 318 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:18,200 Speaker 1: to the politician and prayer to the preacher. She published 319 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:22,399 Speaker 1: that in the Alarm She condemned these killings stridently, but 320 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:26,080 Speaker 1: also argued that it had not happened because the victims 321 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:29,400 Speaker 1: were black. She wrote, quote, are there any so stupid 322 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:33,439 Speaker 1: as to believe these outrages have been, are being and 323 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,000 Speaker 1: will be heaped upon the Negro because he is black, 324 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:39,679 Speaker 1: not at all. It is because he is poor. It 325 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:43,120 Speaker 1: is because he is dependent, because he is poorer as 326 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:46,560 Speaker 1: a class than his white wage slave brother of the north. 327 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:52,160 Speaker 1: On May one, six a general strike started in Chicago 328 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:55,560 Speaker 1: in support of an eight hour work day. The Haymarket 329 00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:58,440 Speaker 1: affair took place three days later. We're not going to 330 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:00,720 Speaker 1: go back over the details of this incidents since we 331 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:02,920 Speaker 1: covered it in another episode less than a year ago 332 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,280 Speaker 1: in quite a bit of detail. But it was during 333 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:08,280 Speaker 1: the aftermath that Lucy Parsons became one of the most 334 00:21:08,359 --> 00:21:12,000 Speaker 1: widely known anarchists in the United States, and we'll talk 335 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:24,399 Speaker 1: more about that after a sponsor break. Prior to the 336 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:28,800 Speaker 1: Haymarket incident, Albert Parsons had been traveling and speaking extensively. 337 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:33,280 Speaker 1: Presumably Lucy was keeping everything going at home while also 338 00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:37,159 Speaker 1: writing for the Alarm a lot and working with local 339 00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:40,760 Speaker 1: labor and anarchist groups in Chicago. We really don't have 340 00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:43,920 Speaker 1: the specifics of how this was all working. It's possible 341 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:46,840 Speaker 1: that she was taking the children with her, and the 342 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:50,040 Speaker 1: idea that she had her children with her was a 343 00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:54,560 Speaker 1: key part of Albert's defense during his conspiracy trial, the 344 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:57,040 Speaker 1: whole idea being we never would have brought our children 345 00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:58,359 Speaker 1: with us if we had thought it was going to 346 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:02,800 Speaker 1: be dangerous. But after the Haymarket incident, Lucy often had 347 00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:06,080 Speaker 1: to leave her children in other people's care. Lizzie Swank 348 00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:07,960 Speaker 1: was often the person who was keeping her up to 349 00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:12,000 Speaker 1: date on how they were doing. Albert Parsons and seven 350 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:16,560 Speaker 1: other men were tried together after the Haymarket bombing. Lucy 351 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,000 Speaker 1: attended every day of the trial, along with jury selection. 352 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:23,560 Speaker 1: The proceedings stretched from June twenty one to August even 353 00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:28,720 Speaker 1: all eight men were found guilty and all but one 354 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:32,639 Speaker 1: of them were sentenced to death. That included Albert Parsons. 355 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:36,480 Speaker 1: Lucy did a lot of work to raise money for 356 00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:40,639 Speaker 1: a clemency campaign and to raise awareness of what had happened. 357 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:44,560 Speaker 1: She also edited and published a book called The Famous 358 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: Speeches of the Eight Chicago Anarchists. She went on a 359 00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:51,880 Speaker 1: speaking tour, traveling to seventeen states and making more than 360 00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:55,560 Speaker 1: forty speeches. She earned as much as a hundred dollars 361 00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:58,199 Speaker 1: a day through these talks and other activities, and she 362 00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:01,080 Speaker 1: sent the vast majority of it back to Chicago. For 363 00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:05,400 Speaker 1: the men's defense. She walked her audiences through her account 364 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:09,680 Speaker 1: of what had happened at Haymarket, including, as I said earlier, 365 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,000 Speaker 1: how she would not have taken her own children with 366 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:13,720 Speaker 1: her if she thought it was going to be dangerous, 367 00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:15,600 Speaker 1: and she talked about all the ways she thought the 368 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:19,080 Speaker 1: trial had been unfair. We noted at the beginning of 369 00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:21,159 Speaker 1: the show that at the very first stop on this 370 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,440 Speaker 1: tour a reporter asked about parsons background and that she 371 00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:28,640 Speaker 1: refused to answer, But news coverage of her speaking tour 372 00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:32,280 Speaker 1: didn't drop this issue. There was a lot of focus 373 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,439 Speaker 1: on her appearance and a lot of speculation that she 374 00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:40,800 Speaker 1: had some combination of African, indigenous and Mexican ancestry, and 375 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:43,600 Speaker 1: a lot of reporters just described her appearance as they 376 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:47,159 Speaker 1: would describe the appearance of a black person, focusing on 377 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:49,840 Speaker 1: the color of her skin and the color and texture 378 00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:52,800 Speaker 1: of her hair and the structure of her facial bones. 379 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,240 Speaker 1: A lot of reporters seemed to assume that she was black, 380 00:23:57,280 --> 00:23:59,520 Speaker 1: and they wrote about her in a way that drew 381 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:03,000 Speaker 1: from areeo types of black people. But at the same time, 382 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:08,439 Speaker 1: Lucy Parsons was defying stereotypes of anarchists, who were usually 383 00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:12,800 Speaker 1: imagined as white and male, with unkempt beards and kind 384 00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:18,040 Speaker 1: of an unhinged rhetoric. Parsons was always very neatly dressed 385 00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:22,960 Speaker 1: in dark colored dresses and elegant but usually simple accessories. 386 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:27,800 Speaker 1: At all together just projected this sense of respectability, but 387 00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:32,360 Speaker 1: she combined that with radical rhetoric. She often started speeches 388 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:37,879 Speaker 1: by declaring, quote, I am an anarchist. On December, she 389 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:41,080 Speaker 1: gave a speech at Kansas City's Clump Hall in which 390 00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:44,000 Speaker 1: she said, quote, I suppose some of you expected to 391 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:45,879 Speaker 1: see me with a bomb in one hand and a 392 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:49,720 Speaker 1: flaming torch in the other, but are disappointed in seeing neither. 393 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:53,840 Speaker 1: If such has been your ideas regarding an anarchist, you 394 00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:59,040 Speaker 1: deserve to be disappointed. Anarchists are peaceable, law abiding people. 395 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,720 Speaker 1: What do anarchists mean when they speak of anarchy? Webster 396 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:07,000 Speaker 1: gives the term two definitions, chaos and the state of 397 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:11,240 Speaker 1: being without political rule. We cling to the latter definition, 398 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,679 Speaker 1: our enemies hold that we believe only in the former. 399 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:19,760 Speaker 1: Lucy Parsons faced arrest at various points on this tour, 400 00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:23,480 Speaker 1: and in Columbus, Ohio, she was jailed and told she 401 00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:26,679 Speaker 1: would have to return to stand trial for what was 402 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:30,919 Speaker 1: deemed obscene language. She did not go back for that 403 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:34,760 Speaker 1: court date, but the arrests continued after she got back home. 404 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:38,120 Speaker 1: Two of Albert's co defendants asked for mercy and their 405 00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:41,760 Speaker 1: sentences were reduced to life in prison, but Parsons and 406 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:44,080 Speaker 1: the rest refused to do the same, and by the 407 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:47,360 Speaker 1: fall of seven it was clear that they were going 408 00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:51,160 Speaker 1: to be hanged. The days leading up to his execution 409 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,760 Speaker 1: seemed to have been really tumultuous for Lucy. First, she 410 00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:57,439 Speaker 1: released a statement that she would never enter the jail 411 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:01,600 Speaker 1: again until she could do so without being humiliated and degraded. 412 00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:04,280 Speaker 1: But a few days later she went to see her 413 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:08,040 Speaker 1: husband and she fainted while she was there. A final 414 00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:10,840 Speaker 1: visit was arranged for the men's wives, but Lucy was 415 00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:14,199 Speaker 1: not there. Instead, she arrived at the jail with their 416 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:17,879 Speaker 1: children the morning of the execution, insisting that they'd be 417 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,360 Speaker 1: allowed to see their father one last time. Instead of that, 418 00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,080 Speaker 1: Lucy was arrested, and, according to a statement by Lizzie Swink, 419 00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:28,359 Speaker 1: she was stroop searched and all of them were detained 420 00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:32,760 Speaker 1: until the execution was over. Aside from this period, just 421 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,639 Speaker 1: before the execution. Lucy Parsons had been described as just 422 00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:41,639 Speaker 1: relentlessly defiant through all of this, but afterward, at least 423 00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:44,959 Speaker 1: at first, she was described as distraught. She and her 424 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:48,320 Speaker 1: children were living mostly on assistance from the Pioneer Aid 425 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:51,240 Speaker 1: and Support Association, which had been set up to support 426 00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:55,600 Speaker 1: the surviving families of the Haymarket eight, but soon she 427 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:59,600 Speaker 1: was back at work, and about six months after Albert's execution, 428 00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:02,480 Speaker 1: she all So became romantically involved with a married man. 429 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:05,679 Speaker 1: This was the first of a series of relationships for 430 00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:07,960 Speaker 1: her that played out over the rest of her life. 431 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,480 Speaker 1: In October of eight eight, less than a year after 432 00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:15,560 Speaker 1: Albert's execution, their daughter Lula died at the age of eight. 433 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:20,040 Speaker 1: She had contracted scarlet fever during Lucy's speaking tour, and 434 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:23,520 Speaker 1: the cause of her death was listed as lymphedema, possibly 435 00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:27,720 Speaker 1: connected to that earlier illness. Shortly after that, her son, 436 00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:31,360 Speaker 1: Albert Junior vanished. It turned out that he was with friends, 437 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,200 Speaker 1: but this was not the only time that he disappeared. 438 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,240 Speaker 1: In April of eighteen ninety one, he disappeared for about 439 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:40,639 Speaker 1: six weeks. This seems to have been the start of 440 00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:44,600 Speaker 1: a growing estrangement between Albert Jr. And his mother, brought 441 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,479 Speaker 1: on by the deaths of his father and sister, Lucy 442 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,720 Speaker 1: moving on with other men, and her pressing her son 443 00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:54,520 Speaker 1: to be a part of her activism work. He does 444 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,639 Speaker 1: not seem to have wanted to hand out pamphlets and 445 00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:03,240 Speaker 1: go to rallies with her. Lucy Parsons became increasingly radical 446 00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:07,520 Speaker 1: after her husband's death during the Homestead Steel Strike. She 447 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:11,800 Speaker 1: wrote that she admired anarchist Alexander Berkman, who had tried 448 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:16,920 Speaker 1: to assassinate the factories manager Henry clay Frick. Her increasing 449 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:20,000 Speaker 1: calls for violence led some of the organizations that she 450 00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:22,719 Speaker 1: had been involved in to stop asking her to speak. 451 00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:27,159 Speaker 1: She was frequently arrested or police would try to stop 452 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,000 Speaker 1: her from entering the places where she was supposed to speak. 453 00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:33,240 Speaker 1: All of this just made her more and more defiant. 454 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:39,040 Speaker 1: In June of Albert Jr. Unveiled a Haymarket memorial statue 455 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:43,480 Speaker 1: at Chicago's Waltime Cemetery, and the next day, the three 456 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:47,560 Speaker 1: convicted men who were still living were all pardoned. All 457 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:51,880 Speaker 1: three of those men cut ties with Lucy Parsons. Other 458 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:55,680 Speaker 1: riffs emerged in the eighteen nineties, as well as what 459 00:28:55,840 --> 00:29:01,160 Speaker 1: example Parsons butted heads with anarchist Emma Goldman, largely over 460 00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:04,920 Speaker 1: the idea of free love. A lot of anarchists in 461 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:09,280 Speaker 1: the late nineteenth century criticized the institution of marriage, since 462 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:12,640 Speaker 1: it was essentially managed by the state. That wasn't the 463 00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:14,720 Speaker 1: only reason, but that was a big part of it. 464 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:20,320 Speaker 1: People who advocated free love argued that existing social conventions 465 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:24,600 Speaker 1: around love and marriage and sex were violating people's autonomy, 466 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:29,520 Speaker 1: especially women's autonomy. So Emma Goldman argued for freedom and 467 00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:34,200 Speaker 1: all things, including love and sex. But Lucy Parsons argued 468 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:39,000 Speaker 1: that the power imbalances that came from patriarchy extended to 469 00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:43,440 Speaker 1: women's sexuality as well, and that if women practiced free love, 470 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:47,360 Speaker 1: it would reinforce the idea that women owed men's sex. 471 00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:51,960 Speaker 1: She also just generally advocated kind of a Victorian esque 472 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:55,760 Speaker 1: idea of respectability, even though in her own life she 473 00:29:55,880 --> 00:30:00,680 Speaker 1: pursued relationships with men under her own terms, outside of 474 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:03,920 Speaker 1: the framework of marriage, which was what a lot of 475 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:08,360 Speaker 1: the free love advocates were advocating in the first place. 476 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:14,000 Speaker 1: Parsons continued to speak at Chicago's annual Haymarket commemorations in 477 00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:17,640 Speaker 1: the eighteen nineties, and she established a journal called Freedom, 478 00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:22,840 Speaker 1: a Revolutionary anarchist communist monthly with Lizzie Swink, but later 479 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: Lizzie married a man named William Holmes and they moved away. 480 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:30,280 Speaker 1: Lizzie had been one of Lucy's longest and most steadfast 481 00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:35,400 Speaker 1: friends and colleagues. Lucy Parsons was somewhat less active as 482 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,200 Speaker 1: an activist and a radical in the eighteen nineties, and 483 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:42,080 Speaker 1: she started supporting herself as a peddler. In February of 484 00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:45,360 Speaker 1: eve she was injured in a fall, and then she 485 00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:48,160 Speaker 1: had an altercation with the husband of the woman who 486 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:51,479 Speaker 1: she hired to help her while she was injured. This 487 00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:54,440 Speaker 1: man said that Parsons was filling his wife's head with 488 00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:59,360 Speaker 1: quote socialistic teachings. In the summer of eighteen, her home 489 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,240 Speaker 1: was badly damaged in a fire that destroyed a lot 490 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:06,240 Speaker 1: of her mementos of her late husband. In eighty nine, 491 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 1: Albert Parsons Jr. Tried to join the army, something that 492 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:14,560 Speaker 1: Lucy vehemently objected to, and in response, she had him 493 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:19,040 Speaker 1: involuntarily committed. He was held in the Illinois Northern Hospital 494 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:23,480 Speaker 1: for the Insane until his death from tuberculosis in nineteen nineteen. 495 00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:27,880 Speaker 1: He was reportedly bullied and harassed by the other patients 496 00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:32,040 Speaker 1: because of his mother's reputation and her activities as an anarchist. 497 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:36,200 Speaker 1: We have absolutely nothing to document how Lucy felt about 498 00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:39,600 Speaker 1: this or justified it to herself, or whether she felt 499 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:43,640 Speaker 1: like it was something that needed justification at all. Yeah, 500 00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:46,600 Speaker 1: Jacqueline Jones and her biography just describes this as cruel 501 00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:52,720 Speaker 1: and and kind of unimaginably and inexplicably cruel. Mainstream US 502 00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:58,520 Speaker 1: culture had always viewed anarchists as deeply suspicious at best, 503 00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,400 Speaker 1: and that became even more of the case in the 504 00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:08,480 Speaker 1: early twentieth century. In nine hundred, anarchist guy Tinobreski assassinated 505 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:12,320 Speaker 1: King Umberto, the First of Italy, and in nineteen o one, 506 00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:16,960 Speaker 1: anarchist Leon Chol ghost shot President William McKinley, who then 507 00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:19,640 Speaker 1: died as a result of his injuries eight days later. 508 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,280 Speaker 1: These and other events sparked a backlash against anarchists that 509 00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:27,720 Speaker 1: would eventually grow into the First Red Scare towards the 510 00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:30,400 Speaker 1: end of World War One. There were other factors involved 511 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,360 Speaker 1: in that too. We've covered this on a show before, 512 00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:37,160 Speaker 1: but the United States also saw a new wave of 513 00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:40,880 Speaker 1: anarchism during these years, but this time it was largely 514 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:45,800 Speaker 1: focused on Italian immigrants to the Eastern US. Parsons wasn't 515 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:49,160 Speaker 1: as directly connected to this evolution in the anarchist movement, 516 00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:51,680 Speaker 1: but she was one of the founders of the Industrial 517 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:54,440 Speaker 1: Workers of the World a k. The Wobblys in nineteen 518 00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:58,280 Speaker 1: o five. This was envisioned as a general union that 519 00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:02,040 Speaker 1: could bring together workers across industries, and it became known 520 00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:06,760 Speaker 1: for its radical and sometimes violent tactics. It was the 521 00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:13,960 Speaker 1: probably most reviled and distrusted union of this era, and 522 00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:18,520 Speaker 1: Parsons attended its founding convention. She was an unaffiliated delegate there. 523 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:21,520 Speaker 1: She was the only woman to speak at the convention. 524 00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:25,720 Speaker 1: She advocated for women and racial and ethnic minorities, and 525 00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:29,880 Speaker 1: migrant workers from Central America and unemployed people to be 526 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:34,840 Speaker 1: accepted as full members of the IWW. While she wasn't 527 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:38,760 Speaker 1: heavily involved in many of the IWW's activities after this, 528 00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:42,680 Speaker 1: she did edit its publication, The Liberator in nineteen o 529 00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:46,280 Speaker 1: five and nineteen o six. This publication was named after 530 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:50,200 Speaker 1: William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist newspaper that ran from the eighteen 531 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:54,360 Speaker 1: thirties to the eighteen sixties. In the nineteen teens, Parsons 532 00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,239 Speaker 1: focused on trying to organize and advocate for people who 533 00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:02,680 Speaker 1: were hungry, unemployed, and homeless. She again faced arrests repeatedly, 534 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: including in Los Angeles for selling literature without a license. 535 00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:11,640 Speaker 1: In nineteen fourteen, she was charged with inciting a riot 536 00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:14,360 Speaker 1: when she was arrested while speaking and the crowd followed 537 00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:18,520 Speaker 1: her to the jail, although those charges were dropped. Parsons 538 00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:22,480 Speaker 1: demonstrations during these years included one that started at Jane 539 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:27,080 Speaker 1: adams Hull House. It's involved hundreds of people marching against 540 00:34:27,160 --> 00:34:31,879 Speaker 1: hunger and unemployment, and hundreds of people were arrested. Jane 541 00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:36,160 Speaker 1: Adams paid Parsons bail and criticized these arrests, noting that 542 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:39,080 Speaker 1: the only thing anybody was guilty of doing was parading 543 00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:44,399 Speaker 1: without a permit. She also praised parsons advocacy for the unemployed. 544 00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:47,280 Speaker 1: And this is such an interesting moment to me because 545 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:50,600 Speaker 1: these two women were opposite in a lot of ways. 546 00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:56,920 Speaker 1: By this point, Chicago's black population was significantly larger than 547 00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,960 Speaker 1: it had been when Parsons first arrived, up from less 548 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,960 Speaker 1: than one percent of the population to about four percent, 549 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:06,719 Speaker 1: and that community had also become more visible in terms 550 00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:10,560 Speaker 1: of the struggle for equal rights. For example, Pullman porters 551 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:13,399 Speaker 1: had been trying to unionize since nineteen o nine. That's 552 00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,719 Speaker 1: something we covered on the show back in fourteen, but 553 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,600 Speaker 1: parsons activism still did not really involve or address the 554 00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:23,880 Speaker 1: black community. During those years. She was more focused on 555 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:27,600 Speaker 1: immigrants from Mexico who had fled the Mexican Revolution between 556 00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:31,120 Speaker 1: nineteen ten and nineteen twenty, and on raising money for 557 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,480 Speaker 1: Americans and Mexican immigrants who tried to cross the border 558 00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:39,560 Speaker 1: to fight in the revolution that violated neutrality laws. By 559 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:43,280 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, Parsons had become involved with the Communist Party, 560 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:47,000 Speaker 1: although she didn't formally join the party until nineteen thirty nine. 561 00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:51,680 Speaker 1: She also started working with the Party's International Labor Defense, 562 00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:54,640 Speaker 1: which was formed in response to the trials of anarchist 563 00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:59,640 Speaker 1: Nicolas Aacko and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. In ninety seven, Parsons was 564 00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:03,560 Speaker 1: elect did to serve on the International Defense Funds National Committee. 565 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:08,400 Speaker 1: Later on, this defense fund helps defend nine black teenagers 566 00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:11,560 Speaker 1: who were falsely accused of raping two white women in 567 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:16,520 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one. They had become known as the Scottsboro Boys, 568 00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:19,200 Speaker 1: and they were convicted. This is a much bigger story. 569 00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:21,560 Speaker 1: It's been on my list for an episode of the 570 00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:25,479 Speaker 1: podcast for a long time, but it's a lot, which 571 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:29,319 Speaker 1: is why we haven't done it yet. In the last 572 00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,440 Speaker 1: few years of Lucy Parson's life, she supported herself by 573 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:35,480 Speaker 1: running a boarding house, and she continued to speak at 574 00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:39,759 Speaker 1: Haymarket commemorations and labor rights events. She lived with her 575 00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:43,680 Speaker 1: long term companion, George mark Stall. Some sources actually say 576 00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:47,120 Speaker 1: they were married. She eventually lost most of her sight 577 00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:50,120 Speaker 1: and was granted a pension from a fund to support 578 00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:55,840 Speaker 1: blind people. On March seventh, two, a fire started in 579 00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,640 Speaker 1: her home. She was killed in this fire, and George 580 00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:02,680 Speaker 1: marks All died of injuries that he incurred while he 581 00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:06,640 Speaker 1: was trying to save her. About three hundred people attended 582 00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:09,880 Speaker 1: a joint memorial that was held for the two of them. 583 00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:12,359 Speaker 1: As we mentioned at the top of the show, authorities 584 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,040 Speaker 1: rated what was left of her home afterwards, seizing any papers, 585 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:21,040 Speaker 1: writing books, and other materials that survived. Although Parsons had 586 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:23,839 Speaker 1: not received a lot of formal education, she had been 587 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:27,960 Speaker 1: a voracious reader and autodidact, and her personal library had 588 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:32,600 Speaker 1: contained about three thousand volumes before the fire. Although Lucy 589 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:37,080 Speaker 1: Parsons had been just notorious during her lifetime, after her death, 590 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:41,440 Speaker 1: that notoriety faded, but interest in her life increased in 591 00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:44,279 Speaker 1: the middle of the twentieth century in tandem with the 592 00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:47,720 Speaker 1: Civil Rights movement, the Chicano movement, and just a growing 593 00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:53,200 Speaker 1: interest in black, Hispanic and Latino and indigenous history and people. 594 00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:57,160 Speaker 1: Historians and otherwise have really been all over the place 595 00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:01,360 Speaker 1: in terms of how they have characterized Lucy Parson's identity 596 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:06,279 Speaker 1: and her ancestry based on her own contradictory descriptions of herself. 597 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:10,440 Speaker 1: What's really undeniable, though, is that she was a woman 598 00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,719 Speaker 1: of color who carved a place for herself in a 599 00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:17,960 Speaker 1: movement that was just overwhelmingly white and male. Do you 600 00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:21,560 Speaker 1: have a listener mail? I have listener mail that comes 601 00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:24,719 Speaker 1: from Dylan, who wrote after our recent Saturday Classic on 602 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:28,520 Speaker 1: the Right of Spring Riots, and Dylan says, Hello, Holly 603 00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:31,239 Speaker 1: and Tracy. This is Dylan, and I've been a fan 604 00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:33,640 Speaker 1: of the pod for a few years. I had never 605 00:38:33,719 --> 00:38:36,080 Speaker 1: listened to the episode about the Right of Spring until 606 00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:38,319 Speaker 1: you reposted it as a Saturday Classic. I found it 607 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:41,239 Speaker 1: very interesting. I thought you might find it interesting to 608 00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:45,960 Speaker 1: hear about the piece. From a professional bassoonist perspective, the 609 00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:49,319 Speaker 1: opening solo of the right has become so standard that 610 00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:52,880 Speaker 1: I have never seen a principal bassoon audition list of 611 00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:56,759 Speaker 1: excerpts that didn't include it. I can't imagine what I 612 00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:59,560 Speaker 1: would have thought if I was the bassoonist playing the 613 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,680 Speaker 1: premier year and walked into the first rehearsal and saw that. 614 00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:06,520 Speaker 1: He's rumored to have called it impossible to play, and 615 00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:10,200 Speaker 1: at the time it probably was nearly impossible. There have 616 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,760 Speaker 1: been significant improvements to the high range of the bassoon 617 00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:17,239 Speaker 1: since then, so that our standard orchestral range actually goes 618 00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:21,239 Speaker 1: even higher. Now, it is still terribly difficult to play, 619 00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:24,479 Speaker 1: requiring special reads and vocals the part that you blow 620 00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:28,400 Speaker 1: into to make them possible to play consistently. Some bassoonist 621 00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:31,600 Speaker 1: Stephen wean themselves off of caffeine in the weeks leading 622 00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:34,400 Speaker 1: up to a performance because caffeine is a diuretic and 623 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:38,000 Speaker 1: makes it slightly more difficult to breathe. Most people don't 624 00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:40,560 Speaker 1: even notice this effect, but when you're playing something that 625 00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:43,600 Speaker 1: challenging in such a high pressure situation, every little bit 626 00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:46,360 Speaker 1: makes a difference. Thank you for such a wonderful podcast. 627 00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:49,880 Speaker 1: Stay well, regards Dylan. Thank you so much Dylan for this, 628 00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:54,880 Speaker 1: since I am of the generation who has been listening 629 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:58,799 Speaker 1: to the Right of Spring since watching Disney's Fantasia as 630 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:04,960 Speaker 1: a child. Uh, that bassoon solo doesn't sound weird to me, 631 00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:07,480 Speaker 1: like it has just been a part of my existence 632 00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:12,080 Speaker 1: since childhood. So I did not really realize how difficult 633 00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:14,320 Speaker 1: it is to play as a bassoonists, So thank you 634 00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:18,520 Speaker 1: so much for giving us some insight into that. If 635 00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:20,920 Speaker 1: you would like to send us a note about this 636 00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:23,600 Speaker 1: or any other podcast or history podcast at I heart 637 00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:26,640 Speaker 1: radio dot com. We're all over social media at miss 638 00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:29,240 Speaker 1: in History. That's where we'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, 639 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:32,880 Speaker 1: in Instagram, and you can subscribe to our show on 640 00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:36,720 Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app and up podcasts and wherever 641 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:44,440 Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class 642 00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:47,520 Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts 643 00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:49,960 Speaker 1: from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, 644 00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:53,240 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.