Remembering The 1912 Bread and Roses Strike

September 05, 2016 by Meghna Chakrabarti - ON POINT

In 1912, Lawrence was one of the textile capitals of the world. Half of all the city's residents over the age of 14 worked in the mills. They worked in hot, dangerous, deplorable conditions.

So on January 12, around 25,000 workers walked off the job.

Children stand on the sidewalk in Lawrence, Mass. during the Bread and Roses strike of 1912. (Library of Congress)

The Bread and Roses Strike of 1912 drew the nation's attention to the working conditions in the mills and to the concentration of wealth and power in the United States.

This is a rebroadcast of a segment which originally aired in January 2012, on the hundredth anniversary of the historic Bread and Roses strike.

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Guest

Robert Forrant, professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Chair of the Bread and Roses Centennial Committee in 2012.

Ardis Cameron, professor of American and New England Studies at the University of Southern Maine and author of "Radicals of the Worst Sort: Laboring Women in Lawrence, Massachusetts."

This segment aired on September 5, 2016.

https://player.wbur.org/radioboston/2016/09/05/1912-strike