The workers walked off the job on March 25, 1937 demanding higher pay, a shorter workweek, better working conditions and union representation.
Depicted in the Lewiston Evening Journal as 'Red Wednesday', Governor Lewis Barrows called in the Maine Army National Guard.
[3] Powers Hapgood, the New England secretary for the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) at the time, arrived in Lewiston on March 12 to coordinate the strike.
[4] Labor historian Charles Scontras said of the strike, "In the shoe strike, the wholesale violation of civil liberties prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to state that 'Maine is at least 100 years behind the time in labor laws'.
In March 2011, Republican Governor Paul LePage who was a staunch capitalist ordered the mural taken down, which in turn created statewide controversy.