Meet us where martyrs are remembered
The 16-foot granite monument in Forest Home Cemetery with a woman standing over the body of a fallen worker has a story to tell. The monument commemorates the accused in one of the most important events in American labor history: the Haymarket Affair.
Labor unrest was already brimming over in America when the morning of May 1, 1886, dawned. May 1st was the day that the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions had dubbed the beginning of a nationwide movement for the eight-hour workday.
More than 80,000 workers took to Chicago’s Michigan Avenue to demand an eight-hour workday. Follow-up labor rallies took place for three days. Violence broke out on May 3 with a confrontation between workers and strikebreakers that resulted in the death of two McCormick employees after police fired into the crowd.
The following evening, May 4, a small crowd of 2,500 laborers gathered at Haymarket Square. The event was nearly over with only about 200 people left in the square when 176 police officers carrying rifles confronted the workers.
It is unknown even to this day who it was that threw the bomb into the crowd. It was panic and pandemonium. When the smoke cleared, seven police officers and four workers were dead.
Eight labor leaders were arrested in connection with the bombing. Even though witnesses could place some of the accused far from the square at the time of the bombing, four of the men were found guilty and hanged. One man was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. One of the men was found dead in his cell. Two others were given life in prison.
In 1893, Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld pardoned the men and called the trial a miscarriage of justice.
That same year, the Haymarket Martyr’s Monument was dedicated with Lady Justice placing a wreath on the head of a fallen worker.
Forest Home Cemetery is open from 8am to 4pm.
There is no cost to visit the Haymarket Martyr’s Monument.
Let the voices from the past be your guide. The names of the accused are inscribed on the Haymarket Martyr’s Monument.
They are: August Spies, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Albert Parsons, Michael Schwab, Oscar Neebe, and Samuel Fielden.
Most of the men are buried in the Forest Home Cemetery. The only defendant not buried in the cemetery is Samuel Fielden.
The Haymarket Martyr’s Monument is located in the Forest Home Cemetery at 836 Des Plaines Avenue in Forest Park. It’s a half-mile from the Forest Park Stop on the CTA Blue Line or a 10-mile drive west of downtown Chicago.
