On May 4, 1886, several activists and protestors congregated in Haymarket Square on Des Plaines Street in downtown Chicago to stage a labor demonstration demanding an eight-hour workday. Tensions were high, as the police had killed one civilian worker and injured several more the previous day. As the crowd grew larger, enticed by the fiery orators among the crowd, the police began to approach the crowd in column formation, numbering 175 officers in total. As the police neared the crowd, an unidentified assailant threw a bomb into the police ranks, consequently starting a riot between the police and protestors [1]. The incident, known as the Chicago Haymarket Riot, resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and four civilians, along with many more injured and several hundred protestors arrested. Eight of the arrested civilians were charged as “anarchists” and sentenced to death. Three years later the city dedicated a monument to commemorate the role of the police in keeping the peace at the riot. In over a century since the incident, both the Haymarket Riot and the Police Memorial Statue to commemorate the incident have been maintained visible significance on the issues of free speech, the right of public assembly, organized labor, the role law enforcement, and justice [2].
On May 30, 1889, the city of Chicago unveiled the Haymarket Riot Police Memorial Statue to commemorate the role of the police in the tragic events three years prior. Commissioned by a group of business and civic leaders through private investment funds from
the Union League of Chicago, the revealing ceremony in Haymarket Square was led by one Frank Degan, the son of officer Mathias Degan, who was one of the seven officers killed during the riot [3]. The fact that this statue was commissioned by city officialdom and unveiled by police supporters shows that the city and the police wanted to control public memory of this historical event, portraying the police as heroes and the working-class crowd as a mob filled with anarchists. In fact, the nine-foot bronze statue, designed by Frank Batchelder and sculpted by Johannes Gilbert, was the first known statue in the United States to honor police [4]. Since the statue’s completion it has been moved seven times and often subject to repairs or rebuilds due to continued vandalism. This fact reinforces the controversy that surrounds the statue, including the memory of the incident itself. To some, the Haymarket Police Memorial Statue demonstrates the crucial role of the police, while to others it represents the powerful city leaders using force to oppress the working class [5].
In July 1900, the statue was moved from Haymarket Square to the intersection of Randolph and Ogden, near Union Park due to repeated vandalism. The statue remained in this spot until May 4, 1927, when it was hit and dislodged by an errant streetcar. The operator claimed failed breaks were at fault but was later heard saying he was “sick of seeing that policeman with his arm raised.” [6]. After repairs that took until early 1928, the statue moved to its third location, this time in Union Park. Remaining at this location until June 2, 1957, it continued to suffer from vandals, though nothing quite as bad as what it suffered at the second or fourth locations [7].
The statue’s fourth location, at the intersection of Randolph Street and the Kennedy Expressway, was a scene of continued attempts to destroy or vandalize the statue. Installed on June 2, 1957 only two hundred feet from the scene of the incident, the statue remained unperturbed aside from the occasional
act of vandalism for over a decade. On May 4, 1968, the 82nd anniversary of the incident, the statue was covered in black paint after yet another confrontation between police and Vietnam protestors [8]. On October 6, 1969, a bomb was detonated between the legs of the statue, blowing it off the pedestal. After being rebuilt and unveiled on the at the same location on May 4, 1970, the statue was bombed yet again on October 5, 1970. The bombing was claimed by an activist group called The Weatherman to “show our allegiance to our brothers in New York prisons and our black brothers everywhere…to overthrow our racist and fascist society. Power to the People.” [9]. Once again, we see contention between working class civilians and the city’s police or leadership, represented here by the battle over the statue.
After being rebuilt yet again, the statue was relocated to the State Street Chicago Police Department headquarters on February 5, 1972, where it remained until October 5, 1976. The statues sixth location was the CPD training academy, where it was located from October 1976 until June 1, 2007 [10]. Both locations exposed the statue to further vandalism, but nothing that approached the violence or statement of the bombings at the Randolph and Kennedy location. The statues seventh and current location is the CPD headquarters on Michigan Avenue. The rededication ceremony was officiated by one Geraldine Docka, the great-granddaughter of the same Mathias Degan who was killed in the Haymarket Riot [11]. This ceremony represents continued effort of the city officialdom to promote the need for police while simultaneously silencing the voices of the working-class and silencing this dark spot on the city’s history [12].
The city’s need to control the fate of the statue, and therefore the narrative of this history, has led to continual protests and vandalism against the Haymarket Police Memorial and what it stands for. Illinois’ Labor Society President Leslie Orear has said, “workers claim the event was a ‘police riot’…’nobody did a damn thing until the police arrived.’ The police story is that they saved the city from anarchist terrorism.” [13]. Orear has additionally claimed that the feelings toward the police memorial statue is not meant to dishonor police, but he can see how they may be sensitive to the sentiment [14]. These issues concerning this statue are still prevalent today. With the incidents of police brutality and killings of unarmed black civilians, many still see the CPD, and police departments across the nation, as oppressive institutions. Oppressive not only regarding class, but race and even gender as well. Perhaps focusing on the Haymarket Riot and historical memory surrounding the event, we can gain an understanding of the deeper meaning of the events that have created the rift between the police and many groups and individuals in our country.
Nick Spoerke, Loyola University Chicago
[1] – “The Haymarket Memorial.” Last modified 2020. https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/Chicago_s_publicartthehaymarketmemorial.html.
[2] – “The Haymarket Memorial.”
[3] – Ray Johnson. “The Chicago Haymarket Riot Police Memorial Statue – A Tumultuous History of its Own.” Last modified May 4, 2017. http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-history-cop/2017/05/the-chicago-haymarket-riot-police-memorial-statue-a-tumultuous-history-of-its-own/.
“Haymarket Memorial Statue.” Last modified 2020. https://www.chicagocop.com/history/memorials-monuments/haymarket-memorial-statue/.
[4] – “Haymarket Memorial Statue.”
[5] – Johnson.
[6] – “Haymarket Memorial Statue.”
[7] – “Haymarket Memorial Statue.”
[8] – “Haymarket Memorial Statue.”
[9] – “Haymarket Memorial Statue.”
[10] – “Haymarket Memorial Statue.”
[11] – “Haymarket Memorial Statue.”
[12] – Aimee Levitt. “Remembering the Haymarket Affair After the City’s Attempts to Forget It.” May 1, 2018. https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2018/05/01/remembering-the-haymarket-affair-and-the-citys-attempts-to-forget-it
[13] – Levitt.
[14] – Levitt.
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