The Hatters Case

Mission Statement

Our mission is to acknowledge, represent, and establish the importance of the Danbury Hatters Case in relation to the labor movement in American History.

Introduction

Once upon a time workers had few righs. Once upon a time unions were of little importance. The Danbury Hatters' Case was the popular name for the Loewe v. Lawlor case. It is the first U.S Supreme Court case to find that the Sherman Antitrust Act applied to organized labor. In our lifetime when groups of workers are not satisfied with their work conditions or if their jobs are trying to keep them from starting unions they can strike without fear that their company will sue them. In 1903 when the workers of the Loewe factory started the strike, the right to organize boycotts and strikes was not recognized by the Supreme Court. 240 lives were negatively changed by the outcome of the Supreme Court desison in 1908. 240 workers had to give up almost a year's worth of savings to pay off what Dietrich Loewe called loss of profit to his factory business which he blamed on the strikers. 240 familes were affected and deserved to be remembered. The events of the case needs to be retold. Our Exhibit looks at the people that were involved and affected by the Hatters Case and its importance in American History. We cannot brush aside this history of our work force; these people that almost had their homes taken away from them cannot become the "forgotten people" of the American Economy. We have the luxury of living in better times where employers legally have to treat us fairly therefore we have an obligation to look at how our labor movement changed over the years. During our archival research we have looked deeply into what we deemed to be the important parts of the case that we want to share with you the viewers of our exhibit.

DIVE INTO THE HISTORY OF THE DANBURY HATTERS CASE