Ludlow massacre

The Ludlow massacre of April 20, 1914 was one of the bloodiest assaults on organized labor in American history. It took place in Ludlow, Colorado (today a ghost town) northwest of Trinidad, Colorado and was the climax of an effort to suppress a strike by twelve thousand Colorado coal miners.

The massacre

The acting National Guard troops decided to evict the tent cities that sprang up around the mines, even though the camps had been established on private property leased by the union.

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Ludlow was the largest of the tent cities, located 18 miles north of Trinidad. On the morning of April 20, the day after Greek Easter celebrated by many Greek immigrants in the Ludlow camp, the troops opened fire with machine guns. They fired across the railroad tracks into the tents. Anyone who moved through the camp was targeted. The miners fired back, and the fighting raged for hours.

Related Topics:
April 20 - Easter - Greek

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In the afternoon, a passing freight train stopped on the tracks, allowing many of the miners and their families to escape to the east to an outcrop of hills called the "Black Hills." Louis Tikas, the camp's main union organizer went to the National Guardsmen to arrange a truce. Lieutenant Linderfelt assaulted him with the butt of his rifle, and the soldiers fired three shots into Tikas's back as he lay on the ground.

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As night approached, the militia descended on the tent camp and set fire to it, oblivious to the fact that two women and eleven children had been hiding in the pit beneath one tent and did not escape with the other strikers. When their charred bodies were found the next day, their deaths became a rallying cry for the UMWA, who called the incident the "Ludlow Massacre." In addition to the fire victims, thirteen people were shot dead during that day.

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