Legacy, Memory, and the Seattle General Strike Of
“I’VE TRIED SO HARD TO MAKE GOOD AMERICANS OUT OF YOU”: LEGACY, MEMORY, AND THE SEATTLE GENERAL STRIKE OF 1919 by KATHRYN GREY AMMON Submitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honors Approved by: ________________ Dr. Jonathan Hagel Thesis Adviser ________________ Dr. David Farber Committee Member ________________ Dr. David Roediger Committee Member _________________________ Date Defended Abstract: This historical project explores competing legacies and formation of memory within the Seattle General Strike of 1919 both in its after effects on the Seattle Labor Movement and the nation as a whole through the First Red Scare. This paper is divided into three chapters, an examination of the strike, national and local media coverage of the strike, and an examination of national and local repercussions from the strike. The Seattle General Strike of 1919 existed within an intersection of many disparate movements—and truly has been memorialized as more than the sum of its parts. The Seattle General Strike has not been evaluated within the context of differing pro-capitalist and pro-worker solidarity viewpoints and how these two stories split, which this thesis will do. 1 Introduction It was ten in the morning of February 6, 1919 when the church bells in Seattle, Washington rang out their usual chimes. Several schoolchildren, likely as young as nine years old stood up, quietly packed their bags, and walked out of their school room. As they walked out the double doors of the school, one teacher yelled after them. “There you go,” said the teacher, “to join those Bolsheviki, when I’ve tried so hard to make good Americans out of you.”1 These children were not just school pupils—they were workers with a union job, specifically, they were members of the newsboys’ union.
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