The Death Sentence of Joe Hill
On this day in 1914, Joe Hill was sentenced to death in Salt Lake City Utah for the January 10, 1914, murders of John G. Morrison and his son Arling in their grocery store. Hill had immigrated to the United States from Sweden in 1879. In 1910, he joined the International Workers of the World (IWW), popularly known as the Wobblies. The group was successful in organizing mistreated and exploited workers in the mining, logging, and shipping industries and rejected the capitalist system. They encouraged their members to express themselves in song and Joe Hill soon became one of their leading singers and songwriters. He coined the phrase "pie in the sky" for his song "The Preacher and the Slave" and also wrote the union anthems "The Tramp", "There is Power in a Union", "The Rebel Girl", and "Casey Jones—the Union Scab".
By 1914, Hill was one of the most famous Wobblies in the United States and this notoriety may have led to his downfall. Despite very tenuous evidence, including supposed eye-witnesses who told inconsistent stories, a Salt Lake City Jury convicted him of the grocery store murders. He was executed by a firing squad on November 19, 1915. Many scholars believe he was railroaded because of his radical politics and he became a martyr and hero for the IWW, telegraphing his last words: “Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize.”
Related Reading:
Examining A Labor Hero's Death
Remembering the Life and Music of Labor Agitator Joe Hill
The protest songs that drove the Wobblies a century ago are still lighting fires
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