For the period of August 1886, eight men which is characterized as anarchists stood convicted in a sensational and controversial trial. It is not fair for the eight men to be put on trial for the Haymarket square riot because the jury was deliberated to be biased and no solid evidence was opened linking the defendants to the bombing. Judge Joseph E. Gary enacted the death sentence on seven of the men and the eighth was punished to 15 years in prison. Dated November 11, 1887 the four of the men were hanged and the additional three who were sentenced to death, one committed suicide on the eve of his execution and the other two had their death sentences commuted to life in prison by Governor Richard J. Oglesby. The governor act in response to extensive public questioning of their guilt in which later led his successor Governor John P. Altgeld to pardon the three activists still living in 1893.In the aftermath of the Haymarket Square Riot and following trial and implementations, the public opinion was separated. For some people the proceedings ran to a sensitive anti-labor sentiment while others as well as labor organizers around the world understood the men had been sentenced unfairly and beheld them as martyrs.
The labor movement in America lived one of its worst days on May 4, 1886. Workers were participating in a protest in Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois, when one of the workers hurt a police officer with a bomb.
Then, a fight started. The consequence of that riot was that 8 people died and some workers were convicted. That incident is known as the Haymarket Riot.
The workers were protesting against the violence of the Chicago Police Department during a strike the previous day.
One of the consequences of this incident was that American citizens started to associate the term strike with violence, affecting the labor movement perception in the country.
