Big Bill Broonzy born / Winnipeg general strike ended - June 26

On this day in 1893 or 1903, blues musician Big Bill Broonzy was born. / The Winnipeg General Strike officially ended when the strike leaders called it off.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all, we're rerunning two episodes today. Enjoy the show. Hello, Hello, everyone,
Welcome to this Day in History class, where we bring
you a new tidbit from history every day. The day

(00:21):
was June Lee Conley Bradley, later known as Big Bill Bruns,
was born in Scott, Mississippi. Well, at least that's what
Bruns himself claimed. Historian Robert Reisman suggests he was born
on the same day, but in Arkansas in nineteen oh three,

(00:41):
and bruns sister Laney says he may have been born
in Some sources suggests that he claimed he was older
than he actually was to be eligible for military service
or to get union benefits. Regardless, Brunsey became a world
renowned blue singer, songwriter, and musician in whose work inspired
many musicians who came after him. Brunsi's parents were born

(01:05):
into slavery when he was born. His father was a sharecropper,
and he was one of seventeen children born to his parents.
He grew up in Arkansas, and early on he expressed
an interest in music. His uncle, Jerry Belcher, taught him
how to play a fiddle that was made from a
cigar box Brunsey called his uncle, the greatest man in

(01:25):
the world in music at that time. Though Brunsi remembered
uncle Jerry fondly and his writings, there is no evidence
of Jerry Belcher in official records, so it's not clear
whether he actually existed anyway. Brunesi sang and played the
violin in local churches while he worked as a farm hand.
He also began playing music for tips at country parties

(01:47):
and picnics, but by nineteen twelve he had stopped fiddling
and became a traveling preacher around Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He
did that for several years. The first Fife he married
was a woman named kurch Rude. He later left Gertrude
and eventually married other women and had a child with
a Dutch woman he met in the Netherlands. Around nineteen seventeen,

(02:10):
Brunsey was drafted into the army and sent to Europe
to fight in World War One. After doing that for
a couple of years, he returned to the United States.
In the nineteen twenties, he moved to Chicago and began
working with the Pullman Company to make money, but he
was still playing music. It was in Chicago where he
began playing the guitar. Papa Charlie Jackson, a popular blues musician,

(02:35):
helped teach him to play the guitar. In a nineteen
fifty eight interview, he claimed he started playing guitar in
nineteen one, but quote didn't get good at it until
nineteen three. Brunsi's first songs with Paramount Records, House Rent,
Stump and Big Bill Blues were released in nineteen seven.

(02:55):
The record did not perform well, but he did make
some money from recording rent part these and odd jobs.
He did more records with Paramount over the next few years,
though they continued to sell poorly, but by nineteen thirty
two he had made several records with the American Recording Corporation,
which sold a lot better and made him some cash.

(03:17):
In the mid nineteen thirties, Brunzi linked up with pianists
Black Bob Hudson and began recording on the label Blue Bird,
which r c A formed to compete with the American
Recording Corporation. The two of them, along with other musicians,
formed Big Bill Brunz's Memphis five. He also worked with
pianist Joshua Alzheimer, who later replaced Black Bob BRUNSI grew

(03:41):
in popularity as a blue sinker, and he had captured
the attention of black audiences, and what's recorded as his
first appearance before a white audience, he performed at record
producer John Hammond's Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall
in New York, and his recognition and acclaim grew. One
of his best known songs is Black, Brown, and White,

(04:03):
a protest song against racism and the condition of black
veterans who returned to the United States after World War Two.
By the late nineteen forties, the modern blues he was
playing was falling out of favor with black folks, who
were turning to upbeat dance music in slow ballads, as
well as the electric guitar heavy blues of musicians like
Muddy Waters, whom Brunsey had actually mentored and introduced to

(04:27):
the Chicago blue scene. He took advantage of white people's
growing interest in blues and folk music, adding new traditional
songs to his repertoire. In nineteen fifty, when visiting Iowa,
Brunsey decided he wanted to stay there and took a
job as a custodian. But it wasn't long before he
returned to music and the road. Brunesi towards Europe in

(04:49):
nineteen fifty one, and his performances there stimulated interest in
the blues and folk music in the U s. Brunsey
performed with Pete Seeger, Brownie McGhee and Sunny Terry. By
nineteen fifty three, he was able to make a living
on music alone, and in nineteen fifty five he published
his autobiography, called Big Bill Blues. He also toured Africa,

(05:11):
South America, Australia and Southeast Asia. In nineteen fifty seven,
he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He was unable to sing,
but he continued playing the guitar. In nineteen fifty eight,
Brunsey died of cancer on the way to the hospital.
He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in
nineteen eighty. Many musicians have cited him as an influence,

(05:35):
including Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend. I'm Eve jeffco and
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
you did yesterday. And if you still haven't checked out
a new show that I host called Unpopular, you can
get it anywhere that you get this day in history class.
And if you're so inclined. You can follow us at
t d i h C Podcasts on Instagram, face Book,

(06:00):
and Twitter. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you tomorrow.
Hey y'all, I'm Eves and welcome to The Stand History Class,
a podcast that proves history is made every day. The

(06:25):
day was June nineteen nineteen. The Winnipeg General Strike officially
ended when the strike leaders called it off. In Winnipeg,
the capital of Manitoba and Canada, early twentieth century workers
faced poor living and working conditions and other social inequalities.
In the late eighteen hundreds, immigrants made their way to

(06:47):
Winnipeg to work in agriculture and other growing industries. At
the same time, business owners were growing wealthier and building
huge homes in the city. But World War One began
in nineteen fourteen and wages were low, while inflation was high,
Unemployment was on the rise, sanitation was poor, and living
conditions were crowded. Many people were not making enough money

(07:10):
to be able to afford adequate food and medical care.
Working class immigrants in Winnipeg were deeply affected by these conditions.
In March of nineteen nineteen, Canadian labor leaders met in
Calgary and called for the establishment of the One Big Union,
which later formed as a labor union that worked to
empower workers through mass organization. Along industrial lines, workers in

(07:34):
the building and metal trades were negotiating new contracts with
their employers for better wages and working conditions. They were
trying to negotiate these contracts through trades councils that represented
workers across their industry, but negotiations between employers and trades
councils broke down and a strike committee was formed after

(07:55):
member unions in the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council voted
to hold a general pike. On May fift the Winnipeg
General Strike began when around thirty thousand people left their
jobs to strike for their right to collective bargaining and
better wages. Telephone operators, retail workers, factory workers, postal workers,

(08:16):
and firefighters were among the people who went on strike.
The police force remained on duty, though they officially supported
the strike. Most of the police force was dismissed for
supporting the strike and replaced with so called Special Police
who walked the streets with clubs. The city's business elite
quickly formed the Citizens Committee of one thousand in opposition

(08:38):
to the strike. The Citizens Committee maintained that the strike
was actually a revolutionary conspiracy led by Bolsheviks in quote
alien scum. Some mainstream newspapers printed stories that cast the
strikers in a negative light and blamed the strike on
European workers. On June five, Winnipeg Mayor Charles Gray banned

(08:59):
per aids in public gatherings. Still, news of the strike
spread to cities across Canada, and people in places like Calgary, Edmonton,
Prince Albert, and Victoria announced their own strikes. Employees told
striking workers that they had to get back to work
or they faced being dismissed. On top of that, the
government passed legislation that allowed the immediate deportation of British

(09:23):
born immigrants deemed seditious. In mid June, the Royal Northwest
Mounted Police arrested several strike leaders. The strike reached a
peak on Saturday, June one, when thousands of workers gathered
downtown to protest the arrests. The Northwest Mounted Police was
called to disperse the crowd, and in the ensuing chaos,

(09:45):
two people were killed and at least thirty were injured.
The Special Police and military patrols also showed up to
break up the protest. Some of the labor leaders were released,
but editors of the strike bulletin J. S. Woodsworth and
Fred Dixon were arrested. It Fearing more violence, the strike
committee called for the general strike to end on the

(10:05):
morning of June seven. Strike leaders were convicted of seditious
conspiracy and were given sentences of six months to two
years in jail. The Royal Commission that investigated the strike
determined that it was not a criminal conspiracy by foreigners. Still,
many strikers lost their jobs, and those who didn't found
that conditions stayed the same. The striking workers did not

(10:27):
immediately win the wage and condition improvements, union recognition rights,
or collective bargaining they aimed for, but unionism and labor
actions continued to spread in Canada, and the creation of
the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation political party got some strikers elected
to city Hall and the Manitoba Legislature. I'm EF Chef

(10:49):
COO and hopefully you know a little more about history
today than you did yesterday. And if you want to
hit us up on social media, you can do so
where at T D I h C Podcast us on Facebook, Twitter,
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this day and I heart media dot com. Thanks again
for listening to the show and we'll see you tomorrow.

(11:21):
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