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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

100 years ago in Hlilyard: Racist attack among multiple violent incidents reported in rail strike

Railroad worker Elmer Richardson of St. Paul said he was working on a cinder pile near the Hillyard roundhouse at night when three men came over a bank, shouted a racial slur (Richardson was Black) and attacked him, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on Aug. 16, 1922.  (Spokesman-Review archives)
</p><p>The railyard strike turned ugly in the region, with one strikebreaker severely beaten, another kidnapped and several others threatened with guns. The Spokesman-Review

The most serious case involved Elmer Richardson of St. Paul, who said he was working on a cinder pile near the Hillyard roundhouse at night when three men came over a bank, shouted a racial slur (Richardson was Black) and attacked him.

“I knocked the first one down and then all three men set upon me, beat me down and kicked me unconscious,” said Richardson, who suffered broken ribs and other severe injuries.

In another incident, three strikebreakers and a guard were repairing a rail car in a remote part of the Hillyard yards when three men approached with revolvers and ordered the workmen to put up their hands. The gunmen tried to force the men into an auto standing nearby, but the workmen broke and ran while the guard fired a shot. The shot apparently did not hit anyone.

The kidnapping incident took place in the Great Northern yards at Leavenworth. J.L. Wiggins and his wife were walking home from the shops when four men grabbed him and forced him to enter a Ford car. They drove him 15 miles out of town and “dumped Mr. Wiggins out of the machine.”

That car drove off, but another car full of men arrived shortly afterward. Wiggins hid in the brush while the other men searched for him. He was convinced that those men intended to do him bodily harm.

Rail shop union leaders emphatically denied that their members had anything to do with these incidents, but railroad executives said that the injunction against picketing and intimidation had been “flagrantly violated.”

From the sports beat: The new Manito Golf Club on the South Hill reported that it had 40 new applications, pushing the country club well over its goal of 300 members.

“Work on the new course will now be pushed with renewed vigor,” said a trustee.