The complicated statue of labor leader Samuel Gompers

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Samuel Gompers fought for the eight-hour work day and helped create child labor laws. But for all he achieved, he was also fiercely anti-immigrant. We explore Gompers’ life, legacy and the statue built to this complicated man.

Transcript

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0:41.3	Behind every public statue and monument in Chicago is an artist who envisioned a person,
0:46.2	event, or idea, crafted in materials like bronze or marble to exist for generations
0:52.2	upon generations. In 2007, Susan Clonard got one of those commissions
0:57.8	to create a statue of the founder and first president
1:01.1	of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers.
1:05.2	The statue recognized Gompers' fight for the eight-hour workday,
1:09.0	collective bargaining, and the end of child labor.
1:12.2	The commission would change Clinard's life not once, but two times.
1:16.7	The first time was receiving the commission.
1:19.9	Up till that point, Clenard had been a social worker in the foster care system, but the working
1:24.9	conditions wore her down.
1:26.8	I was being overworked, very much underpaid,
	...

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