Facebook Twitter Digg Stumbleupon Yahoo My Web

 
Interesting US History
A Website Devoted to Interesting Events in U.S. History

 

 
 

 

ON THIS DAY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY

June 22, 1922

The Herrin Massacre Occurs

On this day in 1922, 19 strikebreakers and 2 union miners where killed during a clash between the strikebreakers (scabs) and union miners in Herrin, IL.

News of the brutality of the murders quickly spread. Many of the local Herrin residents sided with the union minders and turned out to spit on the bodies of the strikebreakers.

The rest of the nation reacted with disgust, some calling for Herrin to be ostracized and comparing the townspeople to the Germans in World War I.