1935 Gulf Coast longshoremen's strike

Lasting for about ten weeks from October 1, 1935 to mid-December on the Gulf Coast of the United States, the strike was marked by significant violence.

In Houston, New Orleans, and other major docks along the Gulf Coast, strikes and other labor conflict had been a regular annual occurrence through the 1930s.

Police in Houston, for instance, deputized 56 strikebreakers into the force temporarily, several being former officers allowed to wear their old uniforms, and dock officials imported their own recruits by the busload and hired Frank Hamer to head "a special force of twenty ex-Texas Rangers and sheriffs to prevent sabotage and looting.

"Special officers" loyal to industrial interests remained attached to the Houston Police for another year until they were dismissed as part of the resolution of the 1936 Gulf Coast maritime workers' strike in January 1937, engineered by incoming Mayor Richard Fonville.

[10] Known casualties include a black strikebreaker named Henry Jones, said to be the first fatality, on October 5;[11] a striking ILA member named Etienne Christ shot to death in Port Arthur, Texas, on 10/21;[12] three strikebreakers killed at the Port of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on 10/22;[13] independent black longshoreman Will Ballinger drowned while trying to escape from an attacking mob;[14] and striker Samuel L. Brandt shot to death in Houston on 11/25.