04/10/2006 May Day - The Riots of 1919

“The next five minutes passed in a dream. Edith was conscious that the clamor burst suddenly upon the three of them like a cloud of rain, that there was a thunder of many feet on the stairs, that Henry had seized her arm and drawn her back toward the rear of the office. Then the door opened and an overflow of men were forced into the room --not the leaders, but simply those who happened to be in front” (Page 108).

I think this will probably be one of the last things I do for research regarding “May Day” before I get into some history of New York City. Expect more research to follow in the near future about Fitzgerald and the events that helped inspire “May Day”.

Soldiers were coming home to a drastically changed United States at the end of World War One. Fitzgerald illustrates this through the war veterans of “May Day”. Sterrett is affected by the job market and inflation. Coupled with his obvious shell-shock, he eventually kills himself. Rose and Key return stateside to prohibition and fear of Communism. Factories were letting a substantial amount of workers go with the war ending and strikes were occurring across the country.

“In the U.S., anarchist activities helped fuel fears and animosity toward all radicals and labor unionists - with many Americans failing to see a distinction between Marxists, anarchists and organized labor” (Unrest in 1919).


The riot that occurs in “May Day” isn’t specific to only New York City. On May 1, 1919 riots broke out across the United States. One particular riot broke out in Cleveland Ohio when marchers protesting the jailer of Eugene Debs were stopped by a group of Victory Loan Workers insisting that the protesters lower their flags. When the protesters refused the request fighting broke out and quickly spread across the city[1]. Cleveland wasn’t the only city plagued with hysteria, apparently Boston, too, had riots (Eskimo). However, the validity of the statement hasn’t been conformed outside of that one resource. It isn’t a riot but on “May Day 1919 the young telephone workers threatened to strike” (The Red) in Boston.

And as the quote from “May Day” shows, Fitzgerald was well aware of the blur between what the public thought were anarchists and Communists. The end of World War one ushered in what was the first “Red Scare” in the United States. History would later repeat itself after World War Two with Senator McCarthy and his communist witchunt.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
The photo is a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine poster from, Wikipedia.
Unrest in 1919
Eskimo
The Red
[1] Wikipedia, May Day Riots of 1919