Thibodaux Massacre: 50+ Black Sugar Workers Killed in Louisiana Labor Strike

On November 23, 1887, in Thibodaux, Louisiana, a white militia and armed civilians attacked striking Black sugar cane workers who had walked off plantations to demand higher wages. At least 50 and possibly over 100 Black men, women, and children were killed over several days; exact numbers are unknown because bodies were dumped in swamps. Two white men died. The strike, organized by the Knights of Labor, involved 10,000 Black workers across the sugar parishes. Judge Taylor Beattie declared martial law and forced Black families into a restricted area before the massacre began. The Thibodaux Massacre was one of the bloodiest labor massacres in American history and effectively destroyed Black labor organizing in Louisiana sugar country for a generation.