Hello and welcome to This Day, a history podcast from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, April 15, 1914, soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private guards employed by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company attacked a tent colony

of roughly 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado.

Approximately 21 people were killed in this attack, including miners, wives, and children,

many of them burning in their tents.

Wallace Stegner, the author once wrote about the

Ludlow massacre, that it was, quote, one of the bleakest and blackest episodes in American labor history.

The details are indeed bleak, as we will get to, but the incident did shake the country's attitude

towards labor and unions. We've talked about this era as being messy and violent with scattered progress towards more rights for workers and unions. We've talked about this era as being messy and violent,

with scattered progress towards more rights for workers and unionization.

So let's talk about the Ludlow Massacre,

and maybe why it's a little less remembered

as some of the other touchstone labor stories of the era,

though it does involve one extremely well-known figure,

who we will discuss.

But here, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.

Hello there.

Hello, Jody.

Hey there.

Nikki, you want to give us a little background on the town of Ludlow and the mine?

This is kind of classic company town, mining town.

But what do we need to know?

...