Sumario: | 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.
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