Remembering Lattimer: labor, migration, and race in Pennsylvania anthracite country - 295

Lattimer, Pennsylvania, is the location for one of labor's forgotten massacres, a result of the xenophobic fears prevalent during the turn of the 20th century.

On September 10, 1897, about 400 strikers of eastern & southern European descent marched to close the Lattimer colliery.

Without warning, the men were fired upon by the local sheriff & his posse.

The shooters stood trial for the killing of the protestors & were acquitted.

Though Lattimer is one of the largest tragedies in US labor history, a type of amnesia attached to the event, & the massacre has been largely forgotten in the national public memory.

Many attempts to memorialize the Lattimer massacre failed, as labor & capital struggled to control memory of the event.

Eventually, in 1972, the town erected a monument at the site.

While Lattimer is a lesson about past labor & immigration practices, it is also about the ways in which communities perceive new immigrants.