MOLLIE WEST: All of a sudden we heard shots. We didn’t realize what was happening, and then pretty soon we found that the line instead of going forward was running back because people began to realize they were being shot at, and they were trying to move out of the line of fire. I was knocked down. I lost my glasses. A whole number of people were piled up on top of me, and I could barely breathe. I don’t know how long the shooting took place, but also there was tear gas, and the tear gas blinded some of us, and we began to inhale it and it began to choke some of us.
When the shooting finally stopped and silence prevailed, people finally began to get on their feet, and when I finally stood up, in total bewilderment, I looked around, and I saw a battlefield.
JESSE REESE, union organizer: I’d never seen police beat women, not white women. I thought, “I’m here with nothing, I should have brought my gun!”
LOUIS CALVANO, steel worker: I was marching between the two flags in the front line. When we reached the police, one opposite me said he had orders to keep us away and we’d have to get the hell back. Then he yelled, “Duck!” and he hit me on the head. I turned and tried to run. A black fellow whom I since learned was Lee Tisdale took hold of me and helped me get away as I was dizzy and wasn’t sure of my direction. I had gone just a few feet when a bullet grazed my left cheek. Just before this, Lee Tisdale had left me. I do not know if he was clubbed or shot then or not, but he later died.
GEORGE HIGGINS, patrolman: I waited for my chance and measured him off and, sock, I smacked him. Officer Oakes then got up and shot this Rothmund, who was identified at the morgue. Oakes shot him again and perforated him in the stomach. This was the lousy Communist….I’ve been in that race riot [of 1919], I’ve been in that stockyards strike with all the foreign savages, but this beats them all.
ADA LERER, Women’s Auxiliary of the CIO: I was with a group of girls singing “Solidarity Forever.” I was in the middle of the parade toward the righthand side and I noticed people were running, falling down to the ground. I heard some shots. I didn’t want to fall down because I am five months pregnant. Then I got hit across the buttocks and I realized that if I did not throw myself on the ground I would be badly hurt.