Editing Knights of Labor (section)

==Legacy==

Though often overlooked, the Knights of Labor contributed to the tradition of labor [[protest song]]s in America. The Knights frequently included music in their regular meetings, and encouraged local members to write and perform their work. In Chicago, James and Emily Talmadge, printers and supporters of the Knights of Labor, published the songbook "Labor Songs Dedicated to the Knights of Labor" (1885). The song "Hold the Fort" [also "Storm the Fort"], a Knights of Labor pro-labor revision of the hymn by the same name, became the most popular labor song prior to [[Ralph Chaplin]]'s IWW ([[Industrial Workers of the World]]) anthem "[[Solidarity Forever]]". [[Pete Seeger]] often performed this song and it appears on a number of his recordings. Songwriter and labor singer [[Bucky Halker]] includes the Talmadge version, entitled "Our Battle Song," on his CD ''Don't Want Your Millions'' (Revolting Records 2000). Halker also draws heavily on the Knights songs and poems in his book on labor song and poetry, ''For Democracy, Workers and God: Labor Song-Poems and Labor Protest, 1865-1895'' (University of Illinois Press, 1991).

===Racism and wages===
The Knights of Labor supported the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]], claiming that industrialists were using Chinese workers as a wedge to keep wages low. To stop companies from doing this, they supported Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and also the Alien Contract labor law 1885. Even though the Acts were useful to pass the laws they wanted, they weren't satisfied so they attacked Chinese workers and burned down their places.<ref>{{Cite web|title= Knights of Labor - Definition, Goals & Leader|date= 7 October 2021|url= https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/knights-of-labor#attacks-on-chinese-workers|access-date= 5 May 2023|archive-date= 28 May 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230528024909/https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/knights-of-labor#attacks-on-chinese-workers|url-status= live}}</ref>

Not only did the Knights of Labor speak poorly about the Chinese, but they happened to be one of the only groups they excluded from their group. Immigrants of countries from non-Western Europe were considered to be second-class citizens at this time. A major factor in why the Chinese were excluded from the Knights of Labor. “Only at accepting Chinese did the Knights generally draw the line,” Alexander Saxton wrote. <ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Weir |first=Rob |date=November 2000 |title=Blind in One Eye Only: Western and Eastern Knights of Labor View the Chinese Question |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/002365600449137 |journal=Labor History |language=en |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=421–436 |doi=10.1080/002365600449137 |issn=0023-656X |access-date=3 May 2024 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403011730/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/002365600449137 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Knights of Labor consistently made efforts towards many problems in the workforce but often left out any advances that would benefit the Chinese communities. 

Anti-Chinese rhetoric and violence were more prevalent among the western chapters of the Knights. In 1880, San Francisco Knights wrote, "They bear the semblance of men, but live like beasts...who eat rice and the offal of the slaughter house." The article also calls Chinese "natural thieves" and states that all Chinese women are prostitutes. In March 1882, Knights joined the San Francisco rally to demand expulsion of the Chinese.<ref name=":3" /> Several years later, [[Seattle riot of 1886|mobs]] led by the Knights of Labor, a loosely structured labor federation, rounded up Seattle's Chinese-born workers and campaigned to prevent further immigration.

Historian Catharine Collomp notes that "Chinese exclusion was the only issue about which the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor constantly lobbied the Federal government."

=== Haymarket Riot ===
The labor movement, including those in the Knights of Labor, were rallying for an eight-hour workday and protesting with their slogan: "Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, Eight Hours for What We Will." Through Eight Hour rallies and legislative lobbying, labor leaders came into direct conflict with employers, who neither accepted unions nor believed that governments should intervene on workers' behalf. During an Eight Hour campaign in Chicago in 1886, a conflict between organized laborers and employers turned violent. By the mid-1880s, Chicago was the center of immigrant and working-class organizing, with a wide array of labor organizations. Demands for the eight-hour workday were at the heart of a strike against one of Chicago's most powerful employers, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which refused to bargain with the union.<ref name=":0" />

While workingmen had gathered to strike against the plant, some of them had drawn fire from authorities. City police and private guards had injured and killed some of the strikers. Which prompted responses from a bigger working class, which included anarchists Albert Parsons, Michael Schwab, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, and labor organizer Oscar Neebe. On May 4, they organized a protest in Chicago's Haymarket Square. After the main speakers, Parson and Spies, left the platform, someone from the crowd threw a bomb into a group of police standing in the square, which left seven police dead, and sixty protesters from the crowd injured. Afterwards, the eight anarchists were arrested and seven of them were sentenced to death in a trial that focused on political beliefs, not the actions of the anarchists. Two of the condemned had their sentences commuted; but after Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison, the remaining four were executed.<ref name=":0" />

The Haymarket trial had two distinct effects on the labor movement: first, a nationwide campaign to round up anarchists and, second, a steep decline in the Knights of Labor's membership. Terence Powderly, the Knights president, disavowed the Haymarket eight, even as local trade unions and Knights assemblies around the country protested the arrests. Rapid growth of the labor union in the mid-1880s weakened the bonds that held it together, New Knights members had joined the organization in the wake of its victories over southwestern railroads, but without fully understanding or accepting the Knights' movement culture. While it would be over a decade before the Knights disbanded, these organizational weaknesses, and the strength of the new trade federation union, led to the Knights' decline.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Faue |first=Elizabeth |title=Rethinking the American Labor Movement |publisher=Routledge |year=2017 |isbn=9780415895835 |location=New York |pages=22–24 |language=en-us}}</ref>