The Memorial Day Massacre: When Chicago Police Killed Ten Activists

And then the film cover-up...Plus more songs for the holiday and our usual cartoons.

May 26, 2025

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” Now watch trailer for acclaimed 2025 film “The Atomic Bowl.” Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE. Sustain this newsletter by ordering one of his books.

As the Great Depression continued in May of 1937, steel workers at massive plants in the Midwest and Pennsylvania sought recognition for their new union and basic concessions such as the eight-hour day. After police in Chicago clubbed picketers near Republic Steel, union organizers called for a holiday picnic to build support on the wide prairie not far from the plant. The festive occasion drew a crowd of over 1500, including many women and children dressed in their Sunday best. The organizers then called for a ragged protest march to the plant.

A contingent of a couple of hundred police, who had been allowed to prepare at Republic Steel—and armed with club and tear gas by the company—halted them halfway there. Soon, forty marchers would be shot, most of them in the back or side, and ten would be dead or dying. Another fifty, clubbed by the cops, suffered head wounds.

It was all captured on film by a Paramount News cameraman, whose shocking footage would then be suppressed—until leaked to a famed reporter and then a crusading U.S. Senator screened it at a sensational D.C. hearing.

My recent film Memorial Day Massacre: Workers Die, Film Buried aired across the country via PBS and you can still watch the trailer and read background and reviews via the film’s main site. It’s produced by Lyn Goldfarb and narrated by Josh Charles, with Studs Terkel.

>Watch trailer:

There’s also a companion book with the same title, the first oral history of the tragedy. The book (my 13th), in both paperback and as an e-book, features eyewitness accounts by numerous activists and the wounded, and compelling and unique reflections by the likes of Gore Vidal, Studs Terkel, Howard Zinn, Howard Fast, and Dorothy Day, even a cameo by Ayn Rand.

A sample or reviews gives you some idea of the story:

“So important. Another piece of forgotten history and lesson in the manipulation of truth.” –David Maraniss, author of bestsellers Path Lit by Lightning, biographies of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and other books.

“Excellent…this is Oscar-level stuff. There are amazing bits–the fact that they had gas masks at the ready, hired vigilantes, machine guns. And the notion of justifiable homicide. Mitchell is a brilliant documentarian of history.” — Rod Lurie, director of The Outpost, The Challenger and other movies

“Stunning. Rivetingly tells the story of one of the greatest human rights atrocities in U.S. history, and the success of the forces of democracy to defeat the attempt of the powers that be to hide it from the public.” — Rick Perlstein, bestselling author of Nixonland, Reaganland and other books.

“Astonishing footage–fascinating film!” — Geoffrey C. Ward, Emmy-winning writer of Ken Burns films, including The Civil War, The U.S. and the Holocaust, Jazz, The Roosevelts and The Vietnam Ware

“A devastating documentary. This film is so good.” — Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!

Order book here

Now on to music. We’ve been posting songs related in one form or another to Memorial Day, so here are a few more:

A depiction of the sad treatment and fate that met even one of the most illustrious soldiers, Ira Hayes, the Native American who helped raise the flag in the famous photo on Iwo Jima. Johnny Cash was proud to do this Peter LaFarge classic and drew wide praise from Native Americans.