Laborers Local 393 in Marseilles prep land for marker commemorating 1932 labor protests

The concrete is poured and a pole is in place to hold a plaque commemorating the 1932 Marseilles labor protest that cost Steve Sutton his life.

The historic marker will be placed on the pole at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 28, at the corner of Main Street and Mill Street near the Illinois River Bridge, where Marseilles-raised Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello will play.

Along with the plaque, a table with a printout of the 1932 Streator Daily Times-Press engraved on it will explain the events of that day.

Unemployed local laborers marched on the Marseilles Dam on July 19, 1932, a million dollar project at the time built using non-union, out-of-state labor despite capable workers living in the communities the dam would most effect.

The protest turned into a riot and workmen fired into the crowd, leading to Sutton’s death, a 45-year-old father of four from Joliet.

Morello, who has Marseilles ties, penned an essay in the New York Times about the 1932 protest. Morello wrote the 2008 song “Night Falls” about “Big Steve” Sutton, as he’s referred to in a July 19, 1932, article of the Ottawa Republican-Times.