The Knights of Labor was a North American labor union.  The group was the first national movement of the American working class(Wier, beyond labor's Veil).  The Knights of Labor was originally put together as a secret.  The group did not want to cause too much attention when they were first getting together.  Unions were not everywhere like they are now, also the Knights were the first organization of workers to include all workers.  The Knights did not discriminate to sex, skill, or nationality.  Since the group did not discriminate, the group brought together almost a million members.  The Knights of Labor wanted people to be cooperative with each other, they believed that the farmers, workers, technicians, and clerks should run industrial and agricultural enterprises themselves.  The Knights wanted a fraternal movement of productive workers that would transform society, ushering in a new era of concord, social harmony, and good fellowship (Weir, Beyond Labor's Veil).

The Knights of Labor was founded in Philadelphia in 1869.  An American garment worker named Uriah Stephens, along with a number of his fellow workers started the organization.  Uriah Stepens gave the group its now famous name.  All workers were welcome into the Knights.  As I said before, the Knights did not discriminate for skill, sex, or nationality.  They wanted to get as many workers in their union as they could.  They believed that the more people they had in the union, the better the union would be.  They also wanted a better life for all workers, but at the same time wanted the group to be kept quiet.  For the first couple of years the group was like a secret society.  There were secret signs and passwords that were important even when the group got public.  It was a secret organization in order to protect its members from employers' reprisals and to give the organization emotional appeal. (1999-2000 Britannica.com)

Prior to 1881, lawyers, bankers, professional gamblers, and stockholders were the only people to be excluded from the organization.  The organization grew slowly until the economic depression of 1870's.  Once the depression hit, large numbers of workers joined.  The quiet secret group is what we refer to as mainstream. In 1881 the organization started to function as a trade union.  The group became a huge part in the strikes by coal miners and railroad workers in 1877.  Terence V. Powderly, who was elected as Grand Master Workman in 1879, let the group's policy of militant action against employers.  But Powderly would not lead strikes, and the organization of the strikes were left up to the regional leaders.  As the United States emerged from the depression of the 1870's, the membership of the group increased dramatically.  The Knights of Labor reached a peak of 700,000 members in 1886.

 The first assembly of local organizations of the Knights of Labor met in Reading, Pennsylvania.  Right from the first meeting, Powderly brought the bible with him.  The bible was open at every meeting.  Powderly believed highly in the bible and thought it was necessary to be at every meeting.  At the first organizational meeting the group talked highly about reforms, including an 8-hour workday, prohibition of employees under 14, institution of equal opportunities, and wages for women in industry.  This meeting made it official that members would not be judged on creed, trade, craft, or degree of skill.  The Knights had 60,000 women workers enrolled in the 1880's.  Having that many women in your union was unheard of in that day in age.  Even more stunning than the number of women was the number of 90,000 "black" workers enrolled.  The only group of people that the organization did not include was the Chinese.  There were protests against Chinese people and the group supported anti-Chinese laws.

Throughout the five years after the convocation of the 1878 general assembly, the Knights of Labor used the strike on many occasions.  During these years the group started to try to use less radical measures.  In 1883 Powderly moved from Grand Master Workman to the head of the Knights of Labor, gaining the promotion because of his leadership of moderate policies.
By the year 1886 the membership of the Knights of Labor began to decline rapidly.  The decline had a lot to do with opposition by Powderly and other Knight leaders to use a strike to win an eight-hour workday.  Members of the Knights also felt betrayed by their leaders for the Haymarket Square incident in Chicago.

The Haymarket Square riot was a confrontation between police and protesters that took place on May 4, 1886.  Because of several men being shot a couple days before, a meeting was called at Haymarket Square.  People were protesting the police violence. The police tried to stop the meeting and that is when the chaos started.  There were gunshots and bomb was thrown along with the fighting between the workers and the police.  There were many arrests made at the riot.
 Along with the Haymarket Square riots in Chicago there was another big reason for the downfall of the Knights.  The defeat of the organization sustained in a strike against the railroads drove many people away form the organization.  There was a fight in 1866 between members who supported the original policy of unionism and craft unionism.  Once this happened there was a large secession of numbers in the craft unions.  Material desires were another big downfall of the Knights.  When the Knights were an organization that was quiet, they worked great.  It was when the organization attracted attention that times got rough for the Knights.

Another organization called the Knights of Columbus was started.  The Knights of Columbus asked Powderly for his group to join the Knights of Columbus, and Powderly got very upset.  When he started the organization in 1879 he was thought as being wrong to start the group.  Now in 1917, the Knights of Columbus were trying to be a secret organization and Powderly did not appreciate that the Knights of Columbus were having success and on top of it trying to get his organization to join them.  /
 There was only one more important struggle that the Knights of Labor participated in.  The Knights participated in a strike in 1894.  This strike was against the principal railroads of the U.S.  The total defeat of this strike was due to mostly to the opposition of the American Federation of Labor.  This defeat led to the formal collapse of the Knights of Labor in 1917.
 The Knights of Labor was very important group in American history.  They were the first organized union of labor workers.  Look at all the unions that came after the Knights.  There are hundreds of unions that followed and added to the Knights legacy.  Yes, the Knights fell apart at the end but they started a path that is still being made by today's unions.

1. "Haymarket Square Riot" Microsoft. Encarta. Online Encyclopedia 2000. encarta.msn.com(8 Oct.2000)

2.  "Knights of Labor" Britannica.com and Encyclopedia Britannica Inc.

3.   Lause's Links. "Kinghts of labor, United Labor parties, the people's parties."  www.geocities.com

4.   "Beyond Labor's Veil: The Culture of the Knights of Labor" Robert E. Weir, Pennsylvania State Press, 1996.

5.   "Knights of Labor and Their Context" James, Bob. www.members.nbci.com

6.   "An Historical Sketch of the Knights of Labor" Quarterly Journal Of Economics, Jan, 1887, pp 141-2
 

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