On October 24, 1892, nearly 3,000 New Orleans Teamsters, Scalesmen and Packers—known as the Triple Alliance or Triple A—walked off their jobs on the levees to demand overtime pay, a 10-hour-workday, and a closed shop.

Representing merchants, railroad owners, and commodities exchanges, the Board of Trade announced that it would sign an agreement with the unions representing the white Scalesmen and Packers’ unions but under no circumstance would it enter into an agreement with “niggers,” as they referred to the Black Teamsters.

The New Orleans Times-Democrat did its part to put its thumb on the scales by fabricating front-page stories with hysterical headlines such as “Negroes Attack White Man,” and “Assaulted by Negroes,” but nothing took.

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