Monuments Relating To The Haymarket Affair

There are several monuments to commemorate the Haymarket affair.

Haymarket Square, Chicago

In 1889, a commemorative nine-foot (2.7 meter) bronze statue of a Chicago policeman by sculptor Johannes Gelert was erected in the middle of Haymarket Square with private funds raised by the Union League Club of Chicago. The statue was unveiled on May 30, 1889, by Frank Degan, the son of Officer Mathias Degan. On May 4, 1927, the 41st anniversary of the Haymarket affair, a streetcar jumped its tracks and crashed into the monument.Adelman, William J., "The True Story Behind the Haymarket Police Statue", in Roediger and Rosemont, eds., ''Haymarket Scrapbook'', pp. 167–168. The motorman said he was "sick of seeing that policeman with his arm raised". The city restored the statue in 1928 and moved it to Union Park.Adelman, ''Haymarket Revisited'', p. 39. During the 1950s, construction of the Kennedy Expressway erased about half of the old, run-down market square, and in 1956, the statue was moved to a special platform built for it overlooking the freeway, near its original location.

The Haymarket statue was vandalized with black paint on May 4, 1968, the 82nd anniversary of the Haymarket affair, following a confrontation between police and demonstrators at a protest against the Vietnam War.Adelman, ''Haymarket Revisited'', p. 40. On October 6, 1969, shortly before the "Days of Rage" protests, the statue was destroyed when a bomb was placed between its legs. Weatherman took credit for the blast, which broke nearly 100 windows in the neighborhood and scattered pieces of the statue onto the Kennedy Expressway below. Avrich, '' The Haymarket Tragedy'', p. 431. The statue was rebuilt and unveiled on May 4, 1970, to be blown up yet again by Weatherman on October 6, 1970. The statue was rebuilt, again, and Mayor Richard J. Daley posted a 24‑hour police guard at the statue. This guard cost $67,440 per year. In 1972, it was moved to the lobby of the Central Police Headquarters, and in 1976 to the enclosed courtyard of the Chicago police academy. For another three decades the statue's empty, graffiti-marked pedestal stood on its platform in the run-down remains of Haymarket Square where it was known as an anarchist landmark. On June 1, 2007, the statue was rededicated at Chicago Police Headquarters with a new pedestal, unveiled by Geraldine Doceka, Officer Mathias Degan's great-granddaughter.

In 1992, the site of the speakers' wagon was marked by a bronze plaque set into the sidewalk, reading:

Gallery

File:Place of the great riot, Chicago, Ill, by Kilburn, B. W. (Benjamin West), 1827-1909 (cropped).jpg, Place of the great riot, Chicago, Ill, by Kilburn, B. W. (Benjamin West), 1827-1909 (cropped)
File:MichaelKin-Chicago1986.jpg, The statue-less pedestal of the police monument on the 100th anniversary of the Haymarket affair in May 1986; the pedestal has since been removed.
File:Haymarket Monument Bronzeville, Chicago 2015-9.jpg, The statue at Chicago Police headquarters (photographed in 2015).
File:Haymarket Monument Bronzeville, Chicago 2015-2.jpg, The statue at Chicago Police headquarters (photographed in 2015).

''Haymarket Martyrs' Monument''

Following the Haymarket affair, trial and executions, the five dead defendants—George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Louis Lingg, Albert Parsons, and August Spies—were buried at the German Waldheim Cemetery (later merged with Forest Home Cemetery) in Forest Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. When he died, defendant Oscar Neebe was buried at Waldheim, where there is also a memorial for the seventh defendant, Michael Schwab.

The Pioneer Aid and Support Association organized a subscription for a funeral monument. In 1893, the ''Haymarket Martyrs' Monument'' by sculptor Albert Weinert was raised at Waldheim. It consists of a 16-foot-high granite shaft capped by a carved triangular stone. There is a two step base, which also supports a monumental figure of a woman standing over the body of a fallen worker, both in bronze. It was dedicated on June 25, 1893, after a march from Chicago. The inscription on the steps read, "1887", the year of the executions. Also, there is a quote attributed to Spies, recorded just before his execution by hanging: "The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voice you are throttling today."

On the back of the monument are listed the names of the men. On the top of the monument, a bronze plaque contains text of the pardon later issued by Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld.National Historic Landmark Nomination form, 1997 , Robin Bachin, Newberry Library.

The dedication ceremony was attended by 8,000, with union flags and the American flag draped on the monument. European unions and American organizations sent flowers to be placed.

The ''Haymarket Martyrs' Monument'' was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior in 1997.

Mary Brogger Monument

On September 14, 2004, Daley and union leaders—including the president of Chicago's police union—unveiled a monument by Chicago artist Mary Brogger, a fifteen-foot speakers' wagon sculpture echoing the wagon on which the labor leaders stood in Haymarket Square to champion the eight-hour day. The bronze sculpture, intended to be the centerpiece of a proposed "Labor Park", is meant to symbolize both the rally at Haymarket and free speech. The planned site was to include an international commemoration wall, sidewalk plaques, a cultural pylon, a seating area, and banners, but construction has not yet begun.

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{{Haymarket affair

Monuments
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