h/t: Jeffrey Perry
102 years ago, on May 19, 1913, Hubert Harrison spoke at a major rally for the Paterson Silk Strikers at the Botto House in Haledon, NJ. Other speakers that day included “Big Bill” Haywood, Patrick Quinlan, Frederick Sumner Boyd, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
Also for more on the strike see Spartucus Educational: The Paterson Silk Strike of 1913
The Botto House later became the “American Labor Museum,” in part because of the large and important meetings held there during the strike.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn speaking to strikers during the Paterson Silk Strike
The Paterson “Evening News” described Harrison as “very bitter in his denunciations of the New York newspaper writers” and reported that he “commenced a tirade upon one of the writers in particular, and called him a — dirty dog.”
The anti-strike “Evening News” added that “his comparisons were very blasphemous and not fit for . . . the papers to re-print”
Co-agitator Flynn, however, defended him saying that “he tells plain facts and the bosses don’t like them.”
(Drawn from Jeffrey B. Perry, “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918” (Columbia University Press)
For articles, audios, and videos by and about Hubert Harrison see http://www.jeffreybperry.net/_center__font_size__3__font_co…
For comments from scholars and activists on “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918” (Columbia University Press) see http://www.jeffreybperry.net/disc.htm and see http://www.jeffreybperry.net/_center__font_size__3__font_co…
For a video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heBKm1ytd5Q
Children working looms in mills in Paterson, NJ. From OutStory: The Paterson Silk Strike
Progressive Action New Hampshire 