Chicago

4.5

Chicago is the second largest city in the United States. It is in state Illinois. The population of the city numbers about 4 million, together with the population of the suburbs it comes up to over 6 million people. Over 800,000 of them are Negroes. Chicago is often called “the most American” of all American cities and towns, and the second largest (after New York) industrial center. It lies on the banks of lake Michigan.

Chicago is not a very old city. It was founded in 1848, when the first English settlements appeared on the territory of present-day Chicago. The city has quickly grown in the last 125 years due to the great number of newcomers.

Like New York and other large American cities, Chicago has two different parts: the center, with its sky-scrapers and rich and comfortable houses on the Golden shore of Lake Michigan; and the districts where the workers live in old and blackened one- and two-storied houses.

Chicago is the country’s greatest railway center where thirty-eight railroads meet. It also has the largest stockyards in the country and the largest grain market.

The idea of May Day — the international day of labor and of men’s solidarity— was born here, in Chicago, in 1886 during the workers’ struggle for the eight hour working day.

On May 1, 1886, the Chicago workers came to Haymarket Square and called a strike in support of the eight-hour working day. When the police came the workers organized a mass demonstration of protest. The police opened fire and killed and wounded many workers. In memory of this day the First of May was proclaimed the Day of International Solidarity of the World Proletariat.

Chicago was also the place where the American Communist Party was founded in 1920.