Chicago Crowd Storms Unemployment Office (1931)

Mon Aug 31, 1931

Image: Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone, 02/1931 [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1931, a crowd of more than 1500 people rioted at the United Charities offices in Chicago in protest of living conditions and lack of welfare during the Great Depression.

During the Great Depression, poor people sometimes demanded welfare with direct action - crowds of the unemployed would descend on relief offices, taking them over until their demands were met and money or goods were distributed.

Historians Harold Lasswell and Dorothy Blumenstock described one such episode that happened on this day in 1931, in Chicago, Illinois:

"On the afternoon of August 31, 1931, a group of 400 persons began to march on the United Charities offices located at 4500 Prairie Avenue.

By the time they reached the relief station, the number had grown to fifteen or sixteen hundred. A speaker addressed them in front of the station, and the tension grew so high that when Joel Hunter, Chief Administrator of the Charities, asked for the selection of a committee to present the grievances of the crowd, there was a move to storm the station. A police squad arrived, and a general riot ensued."

• Date: 1931-08-31
• Learn More: libcom.org.
• Tags: #Riots.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org