Joe Hill
One hundred years have passed since a firing squad at the Utah State Penitentiary executed
Joe Hill at sunrise on
Nov. 19, 1915. A century after, the legend of Joe Hill is very much alive.
Songwriter*Poet
Musician*CartoonistArtist*Organizer
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Labor Martyr and Folk Hero
He wrote songs "to fan the flames of discontent."
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Joe Hill's Story
- Joel Haaglund was born in 1879 in Gavle, Sweden. Both his parents enjoyed music and, as a young man, Joe sang with his family and played piano at a local cafe.
- Immigrated to the U.S. - through New York City; as an itinerant worker he moved westward, working in a variety of jobs.
- Joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) known as the "Wobblies."
- Borrowing melodies from church and Tin Pan Alley songs, Joe wrote biting songs denouncing the bosses and praising the virtues of labor solidarity.
- Wrote Preacher and the Slave - "pie in the sky when you die" - Casey Jones--the Union Scab, There is Power in a Union, The Rebel Girl and other IWW favorites.
- Helped build the labor movement by organizing the IWW and by participating in strikes and free speech fights; his songs, poems and cartoons appeared in the union's Industrial Worker and The Little Red Songbook.
- Was arrested - in 1914 in Salt Lake City - and charged with murdering a man following a botched grocery store robbery. Joe proclaimed his innocence and, in an unfair trial, was convicted in an atmosphere of anti-union hysteria.
- Was condemned to death despite international pleas for clemency sent to the governor of Utah.
- On Nov. 19, 1915 was executed by firing squad; thirty thousand people attended his funeral in Chicago.
- The IWW placed Joe's ashes in envelopes which they sent around the world to be released to the winds on May 1, 1916.
[Sources: Anywhere but Utah, Songs of Joe Hill,
liner notes on CD by Bucky Halker; Postal Worker, American Postal Workers Union, magazine, Nov/Dec. 2015, special thanks; Rebel
Voices by Joyce Kornbluh; AFL-CIO web posting.]
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