The Newsboys Strike

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The Newsboys Strike was a general strike of newsboys in cities throughout New England in July and August 1899. It is recognized as the starting point for distinct youth activism in the United States.

[edit] About

The Newsboys Strike was an event that began on July 20, 1899, when the tensions between New York City newspapers (Joseph Pulitzer's World, and William Randolph Hearst's Journal) and their distributors (i.e. newsboys) over a ten-cent price hike which had started late the previous year came to a head with an mob attacking a delivery wagon in Queens. The next day, the newsboys of New York City got together and agreed to go on strike. They shut down circulation throughout New York City and from Philadelphia to Cincinnati to Boston for two and a half weeks. Kid Blink, one of their leaders of the strike, described their objection thus: "Ain't ten cents worth as much to us as it is to Pulitzer and Hearst who are millionaires? Well, I guess it is. If they can't spare it, how can we?"

At the end of the strike, the newspapers did not lower their prices but compromised by agreeing to buy back the newsboys' unsold newspapers, and the union disbanded.

These events later inspired the movie musical Newsies, produced by Disney.

[edit] External links

• http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/offord/192/articles/trib_28a.html
• http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=166
• http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/offord/192/articles/trib_30.html