May Day riots of 1919

The May Day riots of 1919 were a series of violent demonstrations that occurred throughout Cleveland, Ohio on May 1 (May Day), 1919. The riots occurred during the May Day parade organised by Socialist leader Charles Ruthenberg, of local trade unionists, socialists, communists, and anarchists to protest the jailing of Eugene V. Debs. The previous year, Debs's Federal Court trial was held in Cleveland. The event was also aimed at helping promote Ruthenberg's own candidacy for mayor of Cleveland. The 32 groups were divided into four units, each holding a Socialist flag and an American flag at its head. The cause of the riots is disputed.

According to the Cleveland Bicentennial Commisssion, as they marched to Cleveland's Public Square, one of the units was stopped on Superior Avenue by a group of Victory Liberty Loan workers, who demanded that they lower their flags. The marchers refused to do so and mass fighting broke out immediately; chaos quickly spreading throughout the downtown area. Ruthenberg's party headquarters on Prospect Avenue was ransacked by a mob.

Law was finally restored by mounted police, army trucks, and tanks. Casualties amounted to two people killed, forty injured, and 116 arrested, including Ruthenberg himself on a charge of "assault with intent to kill". Local newspapers quickly pointed out that only eight of those arrested were born in the United States. In response to the riots, the city government immediately passed laws to restrict parades and the display of red flags. Overall, the occurrence is seen as the most violent of a series of similar disorders that took place throughout the U.S. as a result of the First Red Scare.^[1]

This account is disputed by the Industrial Workers of the World in the newspaper "The New Solidarity", in which they outline that those there, celebrating May Day had not violated any city ordnance to incite rioting, and that the then Republican mayor of Cleveland, Harry L. Davis, had issued an order to the police to suppress any violations of law with "promptness and firmness" setting the tone of how police should respond to the event. ^[2]

They detail that as those at the event were incited by police and self-described "patriots", causing a disturbance, but not a riot; this then was detailed as the pretence for the police to move in to suppress the perceived riot in order to "suppress lawlessness" by using mounted police and ^[a] German tanks, taken from Germany after World War I, were used indiscriminately by the police and army despite the fact there were women and children in attendance. ^[b] The article suggested that the deaths and injuries were the result of police acting to break up the celebration, and that overall, there were 130 sentenced and/or fined.^[2]

See also

• 1919 United States anarchist bombings
• May Day Riots of 1894
• 1886's Haymarket Riot, at the origin of May Day.
• List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States

References

Notes

• The New Solidarity (May 10, 1919) - Front Page:
  • Several parades started from different parts of town to converge at the public square. The paraders, but were soon being heckled by the police and "patriots", with the result that a "riot" was started.
  • In suppressing the riot the mounted police and several tanks were used to support the patrolmen. In driving the war tanks thru [sic] the streets, there was no effort made to avoid women and children, but all were compelled to run for their lives. Part of the war tanks were those taken from Germany at the close of the war.