Today in labor history: Atlanta workers engage in sit-down strike

On this day in 1936, workers at the General Motors plant in Atlanta, Georgia participated in a sit-down strike, which was part of a greater ongoing wave of labor organizing during the 1930s. The goal of the demonstration was to receive union representation by the United Auto Workers.

But the Atlanta GM plant was only the first to be struck, with followup strikes taking place at the Kansas City, Mo. and Cleveland, Ohio Fisher Body plants, on Dec. 19 and 26 that year, respectively. But the most famous strike was the one in Flint, Mich. on Dec. 30, and it continued into the following year.

Photo: The Flint, Michigan strike – the larger counterpart to the strike that occurred in Atlanta on this day in labor history. Sheldon Dick/Wikipedia & Library of Congress (CC)