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Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was an American labor federation active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, ^[1] and had chapters also in Great Britain and Australia. ^[2] Its most important leader was Terence V. Powderly. The Knights promoted the social and cultural uplift of the worker, and demanded the eight-hour day. In some cases it acted as a labor union, negotiating with employers, but it was never well organized or funded. It was notable in its ambition to organize across lines of gender and race and in the inclusion of both skilled and unskilled labor. After a rapid expansion in the mid-1880s, it suddenly lost its new members and became a small operation again. The Knights of Labor had served, however, as the first mass organization of the white working class of the United States. ^[3]

It was founded by Uriah Stephens on December 28, 1869, ^[4] reached 28,000 members in 1880, then jumped to 100,000 in 1884. By 1886, 20% of all workers were affiliated, nearly 800,000 members. ^[5] Its frail organizational structure could not cope as it was battered by charges of failure and violence and calumnies of the association with the Haymarket Square riot. Most members abandoned the movement in 1886–1887, leaving at most 100,000 in 1890. Many opted to join groups that helped to identify their specific needs, instead of the KOL which addressed many different types of issues. ^[5] The Panic of 1893 terminated the Knights of Labor's importance. ^[6] Remnants of the Knights of Labor continued in existence until 1949, when the group's last 50-member local dropped its affiliation.

Origins

In 1869, Uriah Smith Stephens, James L. Wright, and a small group of Philadelphia tailors founded a secret organization known as the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. The collapse of the National Labor Union in 1873 left a vacuum for workers looking for organization. The Knights became better organized with a national vision when, in 1879, they replaced Stephens with Terence V. Powderly, who was just 30 years old at the time. The body became popular with trade unions and Pennsylvania coal miners during the economic depression of the mid-1870s, then it grew rapidly. The KOL was a diverse industrial union open to all workers. The leaders felt that it was best to have a versatile population in order to get points of view from all aspects. The Knights of Labor barred five groups from membership: bankers, land speculators, lawyers, liquor dealers and gamblers. Its members included low skilled workers, railroad workers, immigrants, and steel workers. This helped the workers to get an organizational identity. As one of the largest labor organization in ninetieth century, Knights wanted to classify the workers as it was a time where large scale factories and industries were rapidly growing. Even though skilled workers were prioritized at the beginning 1880s but slowly later by the time of 1886, million workers were enrolled. ^[7]

As membership expanded, the Knights began to function more as a labor union and less of a secret organization. During the 1880s, the Knights of Labor played a huge role in independent and third-party movements. Local assemblies began not only to emphasize cooperative enterprises, but to initiate strikes to win concessions from employers. The Knights of Labor brought together workers of different religions, races and genders and helped them all create a bond and unify all for the same cause. The new leader Powderly opposed strikes as a "relic of barbarism", but the size and the diversity of the Knights afforded local assemblies a great deal of autonomy. ^{citation needed}

In 1882, the Knights ended their membership rituals and removed the words "Noble Order" from their name. This was intended to mollify the concerns of Catholic members and the bishops who wanted to avoid any resemblance to freemasonry. Though initially averse to strikes to advance their goals, the Knights did aid various strikes and boycotts. The Wabash Railroad strike in 1885 saw Powderly finally adapt and support an eventually successful strike against Jay Gould's Wabash Line after C. A. Hall, a carpenter and Knights member, was fired for attending a meeting in February. The strike included stopping track, yard, engine maintenance, the control or sabotage of equipment, and the occupation of shops and roundhouses. ^[8] Gould met with Powderly and agreed to call off his campaign against the Knights of Labor, which had caused the turmoil originally. This gave momentum to the Knights and membership surged. By 1886, the Knights had more than 700,000 members. ^{citation needed}

The Knights of Labor supported the Chinese Exclusion Act, claiming that industrialists were using Chinese workers as a wedge to keep wages low. To stop companies from doing this, they supported Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and also the Alien Contract labor law 1885. Even though the Acts were useful to pass the laws they wanted, they weren't satisfied so they attacked Chinese workers and burned down their places. ^[9]

Anti-Chinese rhetoric and violence were more prevalent among the western chapters of the Knights. In 1880, San Francisco Knights wrote, "They bear the semblance of men, but live like beasts...who eat rice and the offal of the slaughter house." The article also calls Chinese "natural thieves" and states that all Chinese women are prostitutes. In March 1882, Knights joined the San Francisco rally to demand expulsion of the Chinese. Several years later, mobs led by the Knights of Labor, a loosely structured labor federation, rounded up Seattle's Chinese-born workers and campaigned prevent further immigration.

Historian Catharine Collomp notes that "Chinese exclusion was the only issue about which the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor constantly lobbied the Federal government."

The labor movement, including those in the Knights of Labor, were rallying for an 8-hour workday and protesting with their slogan: "Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, Eight Hours for What We Will." Through Eight Hour rallies and legislative lobbying, labor leaders came into direct conflict with employers, who neither accepted unions nor believed that governments should intervene on workers' behalf. During an Eight Hour campaign in Chicago in 1886, a conflict between organized laborers and employers turned violent. By the mid-1880s, Chicago was the center of immigrant and working-class organizing, with a wide array of of labor organizations. Demands for the 8-hour workday were at the heart of a strike against on of Chicago's most powerful employers, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which refused to bargain with the union.

While workingmen had gathered to to strike against the plant, some of them had drawn fire from authorities. City police and private guards had injured and killed some of the strikers. Which prompted responses from a bigger working class, which included anarchists Albert Parsons, Michael Schwab, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, and labor organizer Oscar Neebe. On May 4, they organized a protest in Chicago's Haymarket Square. After the main speakers, Parson and Spies, left the platform, someone from the crowd threw a bomb into a group of police standing in the square, which left seven police dead, and sixty protesters from the crowd injured. Afterwards, the eight anarchists were arrested and seven of them were sentenced to death in a trial that focused on political beliefs, not the actions of the anarchists. Two of the condemned had their sentences commuted; but after Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison, the remaining four were executed.

The Haymarket trial had two distinct effects on the labor movement: first, a nationwide campaign to round up anarchists and, second, a steep decline in the Knights of Labor's membership. Terence Powderly, the Knights president, disavowed the Haymarket eight, even as local trade unions and Knights assemblies around the country protested the arrests. Rapid growth of the labor union in the mid-1880s weakened the bonds that held it together, New Knights members had joined the organization in the wake of its victories over southwestern railroads, but without fully understanding or accepting the Knights' movement culture. While it would be over a decade before the Knights disbanded, these organizational weaknesses, and the strength of the new trade federation union, led to the Knights' decline. ^[10]