Laborers Union Local 393 wants to place a marker at the corner of Mills and Main Streets to honor a unemployed worker killed during a riot in Marseilles. Retired Business Manager David Raikes says in 1932, out-of-state workers were hired to work on the Marseilles Dam project.
Raikes says unemployed workers around LaSalle and Grundy County decided that they should march to the dam, demanding work. He says during a rally day, a riot broke out between the out-of-state workers and the unemployed workers. A Joliet man name “Big Steve” Sutton was shot and killed and twenty-two others were injured from gunshot wounds.
He says that the marker would be unveiled on Thursday, April 28th at 5pm, with a possible special guest. He says rock guitarist Tom Morello could be coming to Marseilles and performing at the event. He says Morello wrote a song about the riot and wrote an opinion piece mentioning Marseilles in The New York Times.
He also says Morello’s family is from the Marseilles area, even though he was raised in Libertyville. The Union of North American Local 393 was organized after the tragedy.
David Raikes presented the plan to the Marseilles City Council saying he would want the marker to go on the corner of Mill and Main Streets near the bridge that goes over the Illinois River in Marseilles.
Correction: The bridge is not on IL 170, that’s the bridge in Seneca. We apologize for the confusion.