Boston Police Strike - Aftermath

Aftermath

In the police commissioner's Annual Report for 1919, Curtis presented his view of the strike. He argued that he could not have requested State Guards for the strike's first night because the city remained quiet and he had reports that many policemen would not join the strike. By the end of the year the strikers had formed a new organization called the Association of Former Police of the City of Boston.

The strike gave momentum to Coolidge's political career. In 1918, he had narrowly been elected governor. In 1919 he won 62% of the votes when running against an opponent who favored reinstating the strikers. The voters of Boston were less enthusiastic about him than those in other areas. Coolidge failed to carry the city by 5,000 votes. He later said, "No doubt it was the police strike in Boston that brought me into national prominence." President Wilson's post-election telegram shows he shared that view: "I congratulate you upon your election as a victory for law and order. When that is the issue, all Americans must stand together." In 1920, Coolidge was nominated as the Republican candidate for vice-president.

The strike heightened public fear of labor unrest and the possible radicalism that lay behind it. The strike contributed to the public anxiety of the period known as the Red Scare of 1919–1920. The failure of this and other strikes in the years following World War I contributed to declining union membership in subsequent years. The American Federation of Labor responded to political pressure experienced during the strike and revoked the charters it had granted to police unions. That ended police unionism in the U.S. for two decades, as police would not try to organize until World War II.

In 1930, a history of the Boston Transcript, the most resolutely anti-union of Boston's newspapers in 1919, perpetuated its original account of urban chaos during the strike's first nights. It described large crowds, including a number of sailors from docked naval ships, that took to the streets, smashing windows, committing robbery and stoning bystanders and cars. It said that the northern, southern, and western areas of the city were all taken over by armed gangs.

In 1931, the Massachusetts legislature voted to allow the officers who had struck to be rehired. But, the Boston police commissioner refused to admit them to the force.