Violent Clash Erupts at Pike Place Market
A confrontation between nonunion longshoremen and strikers leaves three injured in the heart of Seattle's public market.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Two men were shot, but not dangerously wounded, and a third was severely beaten during a fight between 16 negro nonunion longshoremen and strike sympathizers at the Pike Place public market, Seattle, Saturday night. F. A. Webb, a butter and egg dealer in the market, was struck in the leg by a stray bullet. William Clarke, a union longshoreman, was shot in the leg. O. W. Bridgefarmer, a special policeman, employed as a guard at pier No. 6, was seriously beaten and kicked, suffering a broken nose and numerous bruises. Several other men engaged in the fight were badly beaten, but none was seriously injured.
“Two men were shot, but not dangerously wounded, and a third was severely beaten during a fight.”
This 1916 violence at Pike Place Market highlights the long, fraught history of labor and racial tension in Seattle's waterfront economy. These struggles for unionization often utilized the exclusion of minority workers as a cudgel, a pattern that echoes in contemporary debates over gig-work, labor rights, and inclusive hiring practices.
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