Hagley Library is closed for the Labor Day holiday, so we're posting today to celebrate the efforts and achievements of workers and the American labor movement today with this July 7, 1931 photograph of June Croll (1901-1967), a representative of the Communist-affiliated National Textile Workers Union, speaking at a Jobless March in New York City.
The march, organized by members of the American Workers' Communist Party and the Unemployment Council of Greater New York, as well as other representatives of the Popular Front coalition, were calling for unemployment relief and united action in the face of America’s Great Depression, which had begun in August 1929.
Croll and other prominent figures in the march were joined by over 1,000 protestors holding signs declaring sentiments like “All War Funds for the Unemployed”, “Don’t Starve, Fight!”, and “Negroes and White Workers Unite.”
Organizers also launched simultaneous protests in others states; striking coal miners and Isaac Hoffmaster, a Communist candidate for mayor were rousted by police from a protest in front of Reading, Pennsylvania mayor J. Henry Stump’s home, while in Detroit, several hundred protestors stormed council chambers, where a welfare relief bill was under consideration.
This image is part of Hagley Library's collection of Chamber of Commerce of the United States photographs and audiovisual materials, Series II. Nation's Business photographs (Accession 1993.230.II).
Nation’s Business was a monthly publication from the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, a private lobbying group representing American business interests. The Chamber used the publication to inform the business community about commercial trends and to solidify political support around key positions on government policies regarding business and economic life.
Nation's Business is call number f HF1.N38 in the Hagley Library's Published Collections Department; our holdings cover all the years of its publication (1912 to 1999), with most volumes included in their entirety. All of the issues in our collection from 1915 on have been digitized - you can view them online now by clicking here or view a digital collection of Chamber of Commerce of the United States photographs, videos, and publications by clicking here.