"Greg Mitchell is the best kind of historian, a true storyteller." —Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Memorial Day Massacre
, a companion to the acclaimed PBS film of the same name that starts airing and streaming across the U.S. in May 2023, explores a largely forgotten episode in labor--and media--history, all the more vital today as union organizing catches fire after years of decline. Greg Mitchell, director of the film (produced by Lyn Goldfarb), has written a dozen previous books, including the bestselling
The Tunnels
and award-winners
The Campaign of the Century
and
The Beginning or the End
.
This is the first oral history devoted to the tragic and highly influential events in Chicago in 1937, when police opened fire on striking steel workers and their supporters in an open field, killing ten (nearly all shot in the back as they fled). Press accounts generally accepted false police accounts that the unionists attacked first and were "rioting." A cameraman for a leading newsreel, Paramount News, was at the scene, however, and captured the truth on film. But Paramount then suppressed its newsreel devoted to the incident.
When a famous reporter revealed the cover-up, a Congressional committee held hearings and screened the unprecedented footage for the first time, inspiring national outrage—with after-effects, both positive and negative, that endure to this day, as union activity surges, police violence draws new attention, and media "cover-ups" continue.
Featured in the very lively and often shocking oral history accounts are numerous eyewitnesses and injured activists, along with well-known writers Studs Terkel, Gore Vidal, Ayn Rand, Meyer Levin, Dorothy Day and Howard Fast, and historians Howard Zinn and John Hope Franklin.
Carol Quirke, a professor and author of
Eyes on Labor
who grew up near the site of the massacre (and had an uncle wounded by a police bullet that day) provides a unique and compelling Foreword and Afterword that meld labor history and a close analysis of the once-buried Paramount News footage.
The e-book includes numerous photographs and links to key material and film. Greg Mitchell's other books include
Atomic Cover-up, Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady, So Wrong for So Long
, and with Robert Jay Lifton,
Hiroshima in America
Early praise for the
film:
"So important. Another piece of forgotten history and lesson in the manipulation of truth." --David Maraniss, author of bestseller
Path Lit by Lightning
, biographies of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and other books
"Riveting, moving, infuriating and ultimately inspiring." -- Nina Bernstein, longtime investigative reporter,
The New York Times
"Stunning." -- Rick Perlstein, bestselling author of
Nixonland, Reaganland
, and other books
"Excellent...this is Oscar-level stuff." -- Rod Lurie, director of
The Outpost, The Contender
and other movies
"A fine piece of work on American history, film history. and human history. Powerful indeed, on a subject that's as timely as ever." -- David Sterritt, editor-in-chief,
Quarterly Review of Film and Video
, esteemed movie critic at
The Christian Science Monitor
for several decades.
"Excellent. You're doing an outstanding job in reminding us of these incidents we forget."-- Oliver Stone