On this day, 16 July 1862, feminist, anti-racist and anti-lynching activist Ida Wells was born. After the lynching murders of three of her friends for the crime of setting up a grocery store which competed with a white-owned store she undertook a detailed investigation of lynchings and their causes. Her work countered the popular myth that most lynchings were to punish rapists, and showed that instead most were for such “crimes” as failing to pay debts, competing with whites economically or drinking alcohol. She recommended that African-Americans arm themselves for “protection which the law refuses to give”; she herself bought a pistol after being threatened by white racists.
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On this day, 15 August 1911, prison vans containing 90 of those convicted for involvement in the Liverpool transport general strike were attacked as they made their way down Vauxhall Road to Walton Jail. The convoy was being escorted by 32 men from the cavalry unit the 18th Hussars, yet bottles and bricks were thrown at the soldiers and rioters grabbed the reins of the horses. The Hussars opened fire on the crowd and two men were killed. On the corner of Hopwood Street and Vauxhall Road, John Sutcliffe, 20, a carter, was shot twice in the head. A docker, Michael Prendergast, 29, was shot in the chest at close range by a soldier. Three other men suffered gunshot wounds during the fighting. This is a short history of the strike: https://libcom.org/history/1911-liverpool-general-transport-strikehttps://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1188439501341198/?type=3
