“The red flag in New York—Riotous communist workingmen driven from Tompkins Square by the mounted police, Tuesday, January 13th, 1874.”

As the depression of the 1870s deepened, demonstrations by unemployed workers took place all over the country. Workers and their allies demanding relief and job programs often were met with official violence—and were treated with hostility by the nation’s press. On January 13, 1874 a workers’ demonstration in Tompkins Square in New York City was broken up when mounted police moved in, beating demonstrators with clubs.

Source: Matthew Somerville Morgan, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, January 31, 1874—American Social History Project.