Forest Home Cemetery

Haymarket Links and References

• Illinois Labor History Society
  the organization that owns the monument.
• Haymarket Massacre Internet Memorial [defunct 2002]
• The Haymarket Massacre Archive
• Anarchist Images
• Adelman, William J. Haymarket Revisted, Chicago: Illinois Labor History Society, 1976.
• Powers, Joe and Rogovin, Mark, et al. The Day Will Come Chicago: Illinois Labor History Society, 1994. This booklet is available in the cemetery office.
• Missing Piece - Showing bronze leaves originally at base of monument, now missing. Photo courtesy of Anarchist Images.

The Haymarket Martyrs' Monument was erected in 1893 by the Pioneer Aid and Support Association, an organization begun by Lucy Parsons, Albert's widow. It features a granite shaft and two bronze figures - a woman as Justice placing a crown of laurels on the brow of a fallen worker, while preparing to draw a sword. Sculptor Albert Weinert designed this monument based on a verse from the French ahthem, the "Marseillaise", which the five had sung before the hangings.

On the front of the monument are the last words of August Spies: "The day will come...".

On the back is a statement from Governor Altgeld: "These charges are of a personal character, and while they seem to be sustained by the record of the trial and the papers before me, and tend to show the trial was not fair, I do not care to discuss this feature of the case any farther, because it is not necessary. I am convinced that it is clearly my duty to act in this case for the reasons already given, and I, therefore, grant an absolute pardon to Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe and Michael Schwab, this 26th day of June, 1893."

The monument was dedicated June 25, 1893. Thousands of workers and visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition marched to the downtown train station and then rode to the cemetery. Floral tributes had been sent by several nations, and red bunting decorated the monument and speakers' platform. Speeches were made in English, German, Polish and Bohemian, and an orchestra played the Marseillaise.

The following day, Illinois Governor Altgeld pardoned the three survivors: Neebe, Schwab and Fielden. Michael Schwab died in 1898 and Oscar Neebe in 1916, and were both buried here beside their comrades. Samuel Fielden, who died in 1922, is the only one of the eight not buried in Waldheim.

On May 2, 1971, the last surviving member of the Pioneer Aid and Support Society, Irving Abrams, presented the deed to the monument to the Illinois Labor History Society. Every year on the sunday closest to May 4, and the anniversary of Black Friday, November 11th, labor organizations come to this monument to pay tribute to their heroes.