Today in Labor History March 21, 1960: South African police opened fire on peaceful black protesters, killing 69 and wounding 180 in the Sharpeville massacre. Many were shot in the back as they fled. Thousands had been out protesting the hated pass laws, when they decided to march on the police station. The town of Sharpeville had high unemployment and poverty. Its residents had been forcibly moved there from the neighboring town of Topville in 1958. Passbooks were used by the Apartheid regime to control the movement of black residents and to enforce segregation.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #apartheid #racism #SouthAfrica #Sharpeville #massacre #unemployment #poverty #BlackMastadon

Today in Labor History March 9, 1841: The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that freed the remaining 35 survivors of the Amistad mutiny. In 1839, Portuguese slave traders had illegally transported 52 Mende people from west Africa to Cuba, on the Amistad, in violation of European treaties against the slave trade. Joseph Cinque led his fellow captive Africans in a mutiny, killing the cook and captain, and forcing the remaining crew to return them to Africa. The crew tricked them and sailed up the Atlantic coast, presuming they would be intercepted by the U.S. Navy, which captured the ship near Montauk, Long Island. President Martin Van Buren wanted to send the prisoners back to Spanish authorities in Cuba to stand trial for mutiny. However, the Court recognized the mutineers’ rights as free citizens. Abolitionists raised funds for the mutineers’ defense. Former President John Quincy Adams, who opposed slavery, represented them in court.

#LaborHistory #workingclass #slavery #amistad #cinque #mutiny #SCOTUS #abolition #johnquincyadams #BlackMastodon