The uprising stemmed from the brutal working
conditions imposed upon itinerant farm workers harvesting hops at the Durst
Ranch in Wheatland, California. An
influx of job seekers, whose numbers far exceeded the number of positions
available, drove down the already slender going wage. The
workers who were taken on, many of them women and young children, performed
heavy physical labor for 12 hour days in triple digit heat. Despite the temperature, Durst did not
provide water to the workers but instead sold them an acidic beverage to slake
their thirst. Shade and adequate toilet facilities were also lacking.
Facing a strike over low pay and poor
treatment, Ralph Durst called in the Yuba County district attorney and
sheriff’s deputies to quell the unrest.
The inevitable confrontation led to the sheriff’s contingent firing into
the crowd after it resisted their attempt to arrest Industrial Workers of the
World organizer Richard “Blackie” Ford, who was addressing the strikers. At least one worker in the crowd fired
back. When the smoke cleared, four
people lay dead: the DA, a sheriff’s deputy, and two workers. Scores of other people were injured.
As so often happened during the labor
struggles of the era, California Governor Hiram Johnson called in the National
Guard to restore order for the bosses.
Ultimately, Ford, fellow organizer Herman Suhr, and a number of the other
laborers present were apprehended and questioned. Many of them were beaten or otherwise abused
during the interrogations. One suspect
killed himself in his jail cell.
In the end, Ford, Suhr, and two others were
bound over for trial on second-degree murder charges in the death of the
district attorney. Ford and Suhr were
ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. When
Ford was paroled in 1924, he was promptly indicted for the death of the
sheriff’s deputy only to be acquitted at trial.
Soon thereafter, Suhr was pardoned and set free.
Let us not forget the workers killed and wounded that
day, nor should we forget the IWW organizers Herman Suhr and Blackie Ford who were
unjustly imprisoned for their efforts on behalf of labor rights. An injury to one is an injury to all, then
and now.
Solidarity forever.
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