The Everett Massacre

Description

A Graphic Novel

Written and illustrated by Deborah A. Fox
Historic Everett

In 1916, shingle weavers went on strike in Everett, Washington, protesting for an 8-hour work day and restoration of 1914 wages. Indifferent to the dangerous work and low pay of shingle weavers, lumber mill owners dug in and refused. Then, a radical labor union – the Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies – came to town to take up the cause.

Sheriff Donald McRae bullied the Wobblies to drive them out. He would stop at nothing – including violating Constitutional Rights and using violence – to rid Everett of the “outsiders.” The average citizen of Everett was left in the crossfire of rising tension. On November 5, 1916, a bloody gunfight broke out on the docks, and the tragic day became infamous for the “Everett Massacre.”

It was a grisly slice of history that lurked over the city of Everett, Washington — rarely pointed out, but always there. The city now faces its past with Historic Everett’s release of Everett Massacre, a 24-page graphic novel, depicting the last day leading up to the deaths of seven people.

The graphic novel tells the true tale set against a fictional premise involving three children that get caught in the workers’ conflict as the workers strike for an eight hour workday and the restoration of garnished wages. The narrator is Ernest P. Marsh, a true life hero and labor mediator that lived from 1877 to 1963.