Joe Hill

Joe Hill was born Joel Hägglund in Gälve, Sweden. An itinerant laborer, union organizer, and “troubadour of discontent,” some of his songs became labor movement anthems.

After immigrating to the United States in 1902, Hill became involved with the Industrial Workers of the World, or the Wobblies, who sought to uplift all workers into “one big union.” His songs were incorporated into the Wobblies’ Little Red Song Book, becoming quite popular. His biographer, Franklin Rosemont, argues that people were drawn to the “simplicity of Hill's lyrics, the innocence of heart that they communicate along with their radical defiance, their solidarity with the oppressed, their love of freedom, and their bright vision of a new and happier society.” His music influenced a generations of protest musicians, including Pete Seeger, Paul Robeson, and Joan Baez. In 1914, he was accused of murdering a former police officer and his son in Salt Lake City, Utah. Despite a lack of evidence connecting Hill to the crime, he was convicted and executed by firing squad in 1915. Hill’s final message to IWW General Secretary Bill Haywood has become, in a distilled form, a rallying cry for activists: “Don’t waste any time in mourning––organize.” He was executed by firing squad in 1915.