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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, FEB 4–10, 2026  
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_ Gotta Go Down and Join the Union (1976), Lynchings on Long Island
(1946), Autherine Lucy Didn’t Know the Meaning of ‘Quit’ (1956),
Baby Doc Throws In the Towel (1986), Tell the Crowd How You Really
Feel! (1911), Free and Fearless (1941) _

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_GOTTA GO DOWN AND JOIN THE UNION (1976)_

FEBRUARY 4 IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY of the 1976 release of Union
Maids, a superb hour-long  documentary about working and union
organizing. Labor Notes, the monthly newsletter, has published this
short description of the film, which I can’t improve upon, so I
won’t try. 

“If you’re going to work, and there’s a union, join it. No
matter what kind it is. Any union is better than none. And if there
isn’t one, then organize one.” So opens Union Maids, establishing
the tone of this oral history of woman-led labor organizing in
Depression-era Chicago.

“Union Maids weaves together the personal stories of radical
rank-and-file organizers Kate Hyndman, Stella Nowicki, and Sylvia
Woods—who, after experiencing the daily exploitation of domestic
life, set out to build race, gender, and class solidarity in the
workplace.

“Interviewed in their late 60s and early 70s, the women reflect with
pride and clarity on their 1930s experiences agitating for safety
measures in packinghouses, textile mills, and stockyards, how they
educated their fellow workers to avoid yellow-dog contracts (where
employers made new hires pledge not to join a union), and the power of
downing tools when the bosses ignored their demands for better pay or
a slower pace.

“In stunning archival footage, we get to see the vibrant character
of the new Congress of Industrial Organizations, which was opening its
arms to radicals, women, immigrants, and workers of color while the
American Federation of Labor remained dedicated to cultural
conservativism and craft unionism.

“Union Maids, directed by Jim Klein, Julia Reichert and Miles
Mogulescu, is an ode to the class war of nearly a century ago and the
women who led their co-workers into battle and emerged victorious.

“Stream for free on Kanopy with a public library card, or on
YouTube.” [link removed]

 

_THE FERGUSON BROTHERS LYNCHINGS ON LONG ISLAND (1946)_

FEBRUARY 5 IS THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY of an arrest for disorderly
conduct that ended with two unarmed African-American men shot dead and
a third wounded by a White policeman in Freeport, a suburb of New York
City on Long Island. In the days after the killings, there were
widespread protests and calls for the arrest of the police officer on
manslaughter charges.

Members of the large Black community in Freeport, along with the
National Lawyers Guild, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and
many more area residents joined together to form the New York
Committee for Justice in Freeport, which held a mass meeting in
Manhattan to demand the appointment of a special prosecutor to conduct
a new, unbiased, investigation of the killings.

As a result of the public dissatisfaction with the failure to
prosecute the responsible police officer, in July New York Governor
Thomas Dewey agreed to take action, but he refused to appoint a
special prosecutor. Instead he appointed the chairman of the New York
State Board of Social Welfare to investigate the matter and report
back to him. 

The new inquiry did almost nothing to satisfy the widespread calls for
justice in the case. The way the new hearings were conducted made it
very unlikely that they would reach any new conclusion. After the
Board of Social Welfare chief reported as much, the governor ignored
the cries for justice and refused to appoint a special prosecutor. For
more about the case and a link to Christopher Verga’s book, The
Ferguson Brothers Lynchings on Long Island: A Civil Rights Catalyst,
visit [link removed]

 

_AUTHERINE LUCY DIDN’T KNOW THE MEANING OF ‘QUIT’ (1956)_

FEBRUARY 6 IS THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY of the largest, most violent U.S.
demonstration against the racial integration of public schools to
occur since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in _Brown v.
Board of Education._

The riotous demonstration took place on the campus of the University
of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1956. Its objective was to prevent the
attendance of Autherine Lucy, the first person of color ever admitted
to any public educational facility in the state that was not
designated as being for Blacks only.

On her second day of classes in Tuscaloosa, a crowd of more than a
thousand people, not by any means all of them students, surrounded the
Education Building where Lucy was taking a class. They threw rocks and
bottles and promised to kill her as soon as they could.  Lucy was
convinced she would die that day if no one came to her aid. Someone
called the police, and an officer managed to sneak her into a patrol
car and get her off campus. Days later, university administrators
suspended Lucy, both “for her own safety” and “for the safety of
other students.”

A month later, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a sermon about
Lucy’s harrowing experience, in which he said, “As soon as
Autherine Lucy walked on the campus, a group of spoiled students led
by Leonard Wilson [who later became the leader the West Alabama
(White) Citizen’s Council] and a vicious group of criminals began
threatening her on every hand. Crosses were burned. Eggs and bricks
were thrown at her. The mob even jumped on top of the car in which she
was riding. Finally the president and trustees of the university of
Alabama asked Autherine to leave for her own safety and the safety of
the university.” 

King continued, “The next day after Autherine was dismissed the
paper came out with this headline: 'Things are quiet in Tuscaloosa
today. There is peace on the campus of the University of Alabama.'
Yes, things were quiet in Tuscaloosa. yes there was peace on the
campus, but it was peace at a great price. It was peace that had been
purchased at the exorbitant price of an inept trustee board succumbing
to the whims and caprices of a vicious mob. It was peace that had been
purchased at the price of allowing mobocracy to reign supreme over
democracy.”

Eventually the University came up with an excuse to permanently expel
Lucy, but 20 years later the expulsion order was officially annulled.
Never a quitter, Lucy enrolled in the University’s graduate school
of education, where she earned an M.A. in 1992. In 2010, the
University erected a clock tower to honor her.
 [link removed]

 

_BABY DOC THROWS IN THE TOWEL (1986)_

FEBRUARY 7 IS THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY of a huge U.S. Air Force C-141
cargo jet’s departure from Haiti’s main airport, carrying
Jean-Claude Duvalier, who had just resigned Haiti’s presidency, to
exile in France. Duvalier’s departure, along with more than a score
of family members and close associates, in addition to tons of
valuables and expensive vehicles, marked the end of 28 years of
Duvalier rule that began with Jean-Claude’s father, Francois, in
1957.   

Jean-Claude’s government fell after more than a year-and-a-half of
growing popular rebellion, which was widely supported by the
impoverished Haitian masses and also by more affluent social sectors,
including a growing part of the country’s influential Catholic
hierarchy. 

Duvalier’s kleptocratic government had been forced to depend
increasingly on terror – mass arrests, broad-daylight
government-sanctioned murders and mysterious disappearances of regime
opponents – so much so that his circle of supporters was in danger
of vanishing.

One of the last straws that led to the regime’s downfall was a
general strike, of both employers and workers, which had largely
paralyzed the capital, Port-au-Prince, for nearly a week. 
[link removed]

 

_TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL! (1911)_

FEBRUARY 8 IS THE 115TH ANNIVERSARY of the unveiling of a war
memorial on the lawn of the Hillsborough County courthouse in downtown
Tampa, Florida. The year was 1911, and the memorial was for the Civil
War, which had ended 45 years previously. The monument, a 40-foot
marble cenotaph, still stands outside the courthouse.

As part of the dedication ceremony, the area’s elected prosecutor,
whose office was in the courthouse, spoke, saying “The South stands
ready to welcome all good citizens who seek to make their homes within
her borders. But the South detests and despises all, it matters not
from whence they came, who, in any manner, encourages social equality
with an ignorant and inferior race.” [sic]

There was nothing peculiar about such an event in 1911. The vast
majority of monumental Civil War memorials were created after
1895.  [link removed]

 

_FREE AND FEARLESS (1941)_

FEBRUARY 10 IS THE 85TH ANNIVERSARY of the first edition of the
amazingly successful anti-Nazi newspaper Het Parool, published daily
during World War 2 in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Despite the fact it was
illegal and the target of unrelenting Nazi persecution, Het Parool,
which means The Password or The Motto, achieved a circulation of
approximately 100,000 in 1944.

When the war ended, Het Parool continued to be published. It was, for
years, the second largest newspaper in the
Netherlands.  [link removed]

For more People's History,
visithttps://www.facebook.com/jonathan.bennett.7771/  

* union organizing
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* lynchings
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* police violence
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* Autherine Lucy
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* Haiti
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* Lost Cause
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* Het Parool
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