The East Youngstown Riot of 1916

The village of East Youngstown, which would later be renamed Campbell, was built almost overnight by Youngstown Sheet and Tube. In just fifteen years at the start of the twentieth century, the company threw up a mill town from scratch on farmland east of the city. By nineteen fifteen the population topped five thousand, and more than eighty percent of the residents were male, most of them foreign-born immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. They worked grueling shifts in the mill and lived crammed into houses with few amenities.

On December twenty-seventh, nineteen fifteen, workers at Republic Iron and Steel walked out over wages. The strike spread rapidly. By the new year, employees at Youngstown Sheet and Tube's Campbell Works had joined in. The grievance was sharp: the company had cut wages by nine percent while its order books were full of war work.

The confrontation turned lethal on January seventh, nineteen sixteen. A crowd gathered on Wilson Avenue near the plant's north entrance to block strikebreakers from crossing in. Whether rocks were thrown first or a guard fired first was disputed from that day forward. What is not disputed is what happened next. Guards fired into the crowd. Three people were killed. At least twenty-seven were wounded.

The workers and their families responded by burning company records, smashing offices, and rioting through the commercial blocks of East Youngstown. Losses exceeded one million dollars. The Ohio National Guard arrived and restored order by force.

The aftermath produced one of the more striking reversals in the history of Youngstown Sheet and Tube. The company rebuilt the damaged areas and constructed improved worker housing with electricity and indoor plumbing. The village was formally renamed Campbell in honor of James A. Campbell, the company chairman. The men who had rioted now lived in housing the company built in response to their rage.