Qualla: 1921-1928 Newport, Kentucky Steel Strike

1921-1928 Newport, Kentucky Steel Strike: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. A few days before Christmas 1921, the Andrews Steel Company installed thirty-six machine guns inside its Newport, Kentucky plant and hired a private armed force described by witnesses as "gray-eyed mountaineers with rifles." On Brighton Street, the neighborhood that butted up against the Newport Rolling Mill, residents found bullet holes in their homes -- fired not by strikers, but from inside the mill. This was not a labor dispute in the abstract. One in five workers in the entire town had walked off the job, and what followed would last seven years, draw in tanks, the governor, Samuel Gompers, and the American Federation of Labor, and ultimately help create the Kentucky State Police.

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

1921-1928 Newport, Kentucky Steel Strike: The Walk That Shook a River Town

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LoomCreek, CC BY-SA 4.0. On October 5, 1921, workers at Andrews Steel Company began their strike after voting in favor the day before. The issue was not wages -- it was the company's refusal to recognize the union locals representing unskilled laborers at the Newport Rolling Mill. The two mills together ...

Image: LoomCreek | CC BY-SA 4.0

1921-1928 Newport, Kentucky Steel Strike: Tanks on Brighton Street

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. On Christmas Eve 1921, 250 state troopers under Colonel H. H. Denhardt marched into Newport. What followed was an escalating military occupation. On New Year's Eve, strikers and supporters built bonfires on the Covington bank of the Licking River and fired revolvers into the air ...

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1921-1928 Newport, Kentucky Steel Strike: When the Colonel Stopped a Baseball Game

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown, Public domain. Colonel Denhardt's militia did not limit their authority to the strike zone. They ordered workers out of their labor hall, arrested six picketers on dubious prohibition charges, and hit union leaders and even a state legislator with conspiracy charges. They raided an African Amer...

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1921-1928 Newport, Kentucky Steel Strike: Gompers Comes to the Hippodrome

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The strike drew national labor solidarity. Green Line streetcar conductors and motormen pledged $800 to the strike fund. Union railroad employees raised additional funds. In June 1922, the American Federation of Labor moved its convention from Cincinnati to Newport for a day. Sam...

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1921-1928 Newport, Kentucky Steel Strike: Seven Years to Defeat

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown, Public domain. Phillips was wrong. On July 7, 1928 -- seven years to the day after the initial walkout -- the strike was officially called off. Union officials said they saw no hope for victory and were abandoning the effort "for the benefit of citizens of Newport." The company refused to make ...

Image: Unknown | Public domain