August 11 - Workers Demands Fall on Deaf Ears

Labor History in 2:00 · Aug 11, 2026 · 1m

On this day in Labor History the year was 1894.

That was the day that federal troops pushed “Kelly’s Industrial Army” out of Washington D.C and across the Potomac River.

The “army” was a group of unemployed men who had come to the capitol to protest government inaction.

The country was in the grip of an economic depression.

The nation’s Agricultural regions in the South and Great Plains were also hit by a drought.

Times were hard for American workers and families.

The call had gone out across the nation for the unemployed to make their way to the doorstep of Congress.

The goal was to petition…