The Ludlow Massacre was a mass killing perpetrated by anti-striker militia during the Colorado Coalfield War. Soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private guards employed by Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) attacked a tent colony of roughly 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Approximately 21 people, including miners' wives and children, were killed. John D. Rockefeller Jr., a part-owner of CF&I who had recently appeared before a United States congressional hearing on the strikes, was widely blamed for having orchestrated the massacre.
Ruins of the Ludlow Colony in the aftermath of the massacre
Ludlow Massacre
The Ludlow tent colony prior to the massacre. The caption reads: "Ludlow, a canvas community of 900 souls, was riddled with machine guns shooting 400 bullets a minute. Then the tents were burned. The site is private property leased by the miners' union, which has supported the colony seven months."
Three women, wives of striking coal miners, and their children stand outside of a tent at the Ludlow colony.
Louis Tikas, born Elias Anastasios Spantidakis, was the main labor union organizer at the Ludlow camp during the 14-month strike known as the Colorado Coalfield War in southern Colorado, between September 1913 and December 1914; described as "the bloodiest civil insurrection in American history since the Civil War". He was shot and killed during the Ludlow Massacre, the bloodiest event of the strike, on 20 April, 1914.
Louis Tikas
Louis Tikas just before his departure for America in 1906.
The Ludlow Monument, which was erected by the United Mine Workers of America; a statue of Louis Tikas can be seen on the left.
Ceremony dedicating the Tikas Bronze in Trinidad, Colorado on 23 June, 2018.
