The Mysteries of History (July 8 Edition)
Joe Hill Murdered? (NOTE: This Post Has Been Banned by Facebook)
1914 — Joe Hill Sentenced to Die
public domain images from wikimedia commons
On this date in 1914, Joe Hill (1879-1915) was sentenced to die. His crime? Purportedly murder, but probably really because he was a “labor agitator” — a provocative protest singer, cartoonist, and writer who used his songs and artwork to rail against the mistreatment of the working class by the monied interests.
Hill was born in Sweden as Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, but he was also known as Joseph Hillström (Joe Hill for short).
After emigrating to the U.S., Hill became a “Wobbly,” as members of the IWW (International Workers of the World) were known. The IWW was an anti-capitalist labor union.
Among those who supported Hill’s innocence were Helen Keller, a fellow Wobbly, and, surprisingly, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. Some feel that Hill’s decision not to testify at his trial and to reject all attempts for a pardon were due to his feeling he was worth more to the labor movement dead (as a martyr) than alive. When the firing squad was given the order, “Ready, aim …” Hill interrupted, yelling out, “Fire—go on and fire!”
Hill penned his Will in the form of a poem, part of which reads:
My body? Oh, if I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow
And so it went: his ashes were divided into 600 small piles and placed in envelopes which were sent around the world to be scattered.
Just before he was executed on November 19, 1915, Hill telegrammed a message to his fellow Wobblies which contained the admonition: “Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize.”
Questions: Have you read William M. Adler's biography of Hill, The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon? Have you read Joe Hill: A Biographical Novel by author extraordinaire () Wallace Stegner? Have you read The Case of Joe Hill by Philip S. Foner? Have you seen the 1971 movie Joe Hill (aka The Ballad of Joe Hill)? Have you heard Worker’s Song by Dropkick Murphys? Did you know that Hill was in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake? Did you know that author Stephen King and his wife named one of their sons for Joe Hill?
UPDATE / PSA
I always Share my Substack posts to Facebook to broaden their reach; this time, though, today’s entry about Joe Hill was flagged as a post non grata:
But wait: Why does the “takedown notice” have the date May 30, 2025? Today is 7/8/2025 ... ?!?
If it’s a delayed reaction, why would my May 30 post be viewed as problematic? It was about Joan of Arc (“1431 — Joan of Arc Burned at the Stake”).
ANOTHER UPDATE
And, as an addendum to what I wrote above in the original post: I am not certain of whether Joe Hill was guilty of murder or framed. I find it an interesting case, but am not advocating for what position or the other. If you do the research about it, there are reasons to believe in his innocence but also fact[or]s that point in the opposite direction. I truly don’t know. Thus I believe my reportage/summary above to be fair and balanced. So why does Facebook consider it to be incendiary or “dangerous”? Is broaching the possibility of his innocence harmful to the public? Is debate diabolical?
YAU (Yet Another Update)
I selected the “Request a Review” button below the “We Removed Your Content” takedown notice to see if an actual human (I assume the “ban” was auto-placed by a robot [AI]) would lift the ban on this post, but I got this in response:
Even YAU
Oddly enough, maybe it’s my substack site in general (or ME?!?) that facebook is rejecting, because I got the same message with my just-now-posted announcement on substack here. I think, though, that it is just “stuck” on reject mode now after finding Joe Hill “inflammatory.”
