Violence in Brooklyn Garment Workers Strike
One hundred years ago today . . . striking garment laborers clashed with strike-breakers on Roebling Street and Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At 9 a.m., the ten non-striking workers were in an automobile en route to the factory of Samuel Peck, clothing wholesaler, located at Roebling and North 8th, when the strikers intercepted them. That evening’s Standard Union carried the tale in detail, reporting that the ranks of both sides were swelled by onlookers-turned-participants, offering the names of those arrested or hospitalized. Eventually police from Bedford Avenue Station came and settled the matter with nightsticks.
The Standard Union, 5 January 1921, p. 1. Chronicling America.
The injured were taken to the Williamsburg, or “Williamsburgh” Hospital at Bedford and N. 3rd Street. The below is an undated photograph assumed to be from the 1910s.
Williamsburg Hospital nurses, 1918. Brooklyn Historical Society.
According to the Standard Union, the Samuel Peck Clothing Company company had recently reduced wages, causing the strike. The Company was known for its “Sampeck” formal wear. Here’s an advertisment appealing to a mother’s love for her son.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 7 October 1920, p. 5. Chronicling America.
– Jonathan Goldman, January 5, 2021.
TAGS: strike, labor, class, clothing, garment industry, wages, police, hospital