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PODCAST

Labor History in 2:00

The Rick Smith Show

A daily, pocket-sized history of America"s working people, brought to you by The Rick Smith Show team.

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All Episodes

1:59

April 4 - A Day of Mourning

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/04/04

On this day in Labor History the year was 1968. That was the day that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered by an assassin’s bullet in Memphis, Tennessee. He was in Memphis to support AFSCME sanitation workers, who were out on strike fighting for better wages and working conditions.

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1:59

April 3 - To the Mountaintop

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/04/03

On this day in Labor History the year was 1968. That was the night that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his now famous “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. He was speaking in support of striking sanitation workers who were members of AFSCME Local 1733.

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1:59

April 2 - The First Woman in Congress

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/04/02

On this day in Labor History the year was 1917. That was the day that Montana Republican Jeanette Rankin was sworn in as the first ever woman elected to the US Congress. Her mother was a school teacher and her father was a rancher. On her victory, Representative Rankin said, “I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won’t be the last.”

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1:59

April 1 - Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/04/01

On this day in Labor History the year was 1963. That was the day that the New York Times ran the headline “New York Happy as Papers Return.” The longest and largest newspaper strike in the city had ended. During the early 1960s changes in typesetting technology were transforming how newspapers were made.

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1:59

March 31 - The Cowboy Strike

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/31

On this day in Labor History the year was 1883. That was the day that cowboys went on strike. The cowboys worked in the Texas panhandle. Increasingly, the ranch land in the region was coming under large corporate ownership.

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1:59

March 30 - The Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/30

On this day in Labor History the year was 1930. That was the day that ground was broken on what would become one of the worst workplace disasters in U.S. history. At least 476, and possibly more than 700 men died from a disease called silicosis. The project was called the Hawks Nest Tunnel.

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1:59

March 29 - The Union of Wall Street

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/29

On this day in Labor History the year was 1948. That was the day that the labor movement came literally to the doorstep of Wall Street. The United Financial Employees Union went out on strike. The union was started in 1941 by Merritt David Keefe, a page who worked on the stock exchange trading floor.

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1:59

March 28 - Overcoming Division

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/28

On this day in Labor History the year was 1977. That was the day that members of AFSCME Local 1644 began their unsuccessful strike in Atlanta, Georgia. The union was made up of 1,300 mostly black sanitation workers. The city of Atlanta had elected its first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, in 1973.

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1:59

March 27 - Overriding the NLRB

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/27

On this day in Labor History the year was 2002. That was the day that the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case Hoffman Plastic Compound, Inc. versus the National Labor Relations Board. This case had profound importance for undocumented workers in the United States.

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1:59

March 26 - Gompers Embraces Anti-Immigrant Legislation

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/26

On this day in Labor History the year was 1910. That was the day that Congress expanded the Immigration Act passed three years earlier. The new language prohibited “criminals, paupers, anarchists and diseased persons” from entering the nation. During the first decade of the twentieth century, some nine million immigrants arrived on the shores of the United States.

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1:59

March 25 - Tragic, Devastating and Preventable

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/25

On this day in Labor History the year was 1911. It was one the most tragic days in US labor history. 146, mostly Jewish and Italian, women died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City. The death toll was so high because exits were locked or blocked, and basic safety precautions were not taken in the sweatshop.

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1:59

March 24 - Dorothy Height is Born

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/24

On this day in Labor History the year was 1912. That was the birthday of Dorothy Height, a Civil Rights leader and a champion for black women domestic workers. Domestic workers had largely been left out of the labor protections passed as part of the New Deal.

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1:59

March 23 - Wobblies on Trial

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/23

On this day in Labor History the year was 1918. That was the day that trial of 101 Industrial Workers of the World began in Chicago. Their alleged crime? Speaking out against US involvement in World War I.

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1:59

March 22 - A Big Dam Deal

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/22

On this day in Labor History the year was 1941. That was the day that the generators began to operate at one of the most massive construction projects ever built—the Grand Coulee Dam. The dam generates hydro-power from the Columbia River in Washington State.

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1:59

March 21 - The Beginning of the End of Apartheid

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/21

On this day in Labor History the year was 1960. That was the day of the Sharpeville, Massacre in South Africa. Black South Africans were required to carry identification documents. These passes limited who could live or work in designated “white” areas of the country.

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1:59

March 20 - The Birth of the Republican Party

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/20

On this day in Labor History the year was 1854. That was the day that the founders of what became the Republican Party met in Ripon, Wisconsin. The idea was to form a new party, opposed to the Southern labor system based on slavery. That July the Republicans held their first convention in Michigan.

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1:59

March 19 - The Tree of Solidarity

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/19

On this day in Labor History the year was 1834. That was the day that six Englishmen, who would become known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs were sentenced to seven years “transportation” to the penal colony of Australia. Their crime? Forming a union

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1:59

March 18 - Dancing in the Streets

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/18

On this day in Labor History the year was 1968. That was the day that the staff at radio station KMPX in San Francisco went on strike. The radio station had broken new ground with their “underground rock” format. In 1967, the station hired Tom “Big Daddy” Donahue as a DJ.

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1:59

March 17 - The Fight for the Eight Hour Day

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/17

On this day in Labor History the year was 1890. That was the day that the executive council of the American Federation of Labor decided that the Carpenters union should lead a national campaign for the eight-hour day. The cry “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will!” had been on the lips of working people for more than twenty years.

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1:59

March 16 - The Voice of Freedom

Labor History in 2:00 ·

2026/03/16

“Too long have others spoken for us." Those were the words published On this day in Labor History the year was 1827. This was the message of the co-editors of the Freeman’s Journal, the first black newspaper in the United States. Slavery had been outlawed in New York that same year.

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