In 1933, the Funsten Nut factory in St. Louis found itself at the center of a significant labor strike. Though separated by racially segregated floors and facilities, the factory鈥檚 workforce of women laborers began to take to the streets by the hundreds.
The strike came at a time when St. Louis was a center of radical organizing, said Devin Thomas O鈥橲hea, who wrote about the strike in April in .
鈥淚n the heart of the Great Depression, this strike is all about Black female workers,鈥� he said. He noted that the time period featured 鈥渟pontaneous 鈥榩oor people's鈥� campaigns erupting in cities around the country, including St. Louis, where the dispossessed of the city basically march on City Hall and stand outside for days on end.鈥�
The strike ultimately put about 2,000 Black women workers on the streets. As the strike stretched on, the workers on the picket line were joined by their white counterparts.
鈥淥n the second day, lots and lots of the white workers walk off the job as well,鈥� O鈥橲hea said. 鈥淪o there's a huge amount of solidarity.鈥�
The strike ended on May 24, 1933, with the factory owners agreeing to increase their workers鈥� wages. Though the strike is little-known today, O鈥橲hea argued that the Funsten Nut strike helped shape the following decades of labor and civil rights activism.
鈥淭his is something that had not happened in the American labor movement before,鈥� he told St. Louis on the Air. 鈥淚t's a really keystone example of, as David Roediger, a labor historian says: 鈥楿p until this point, labor is white and male,鈥� and this is a huge change.鈥�
To hear more about the Funsten Nut strike, its organizers and writer Devin Thomas O鈥橲hea鈥檚 insights, listen to the full St. Louis on the Air conversation on , , , , or by clicking the play button below.
鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by , , , and . Ulaa Kuziez is our production assistant. The audio engineer is . Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
