We Want Our Bread and Roses

“The children themselves were an object lesson as to the meaning of these great upheavals in the labor world…I could not help but think that, as I looked over these wan and pinched faces, some day in the near future these same children will march to the ballot box and forever free themselves and their children from a system that drove them from their parents and homes.” —The Barre Daily Times, VT. February 24, 1912

On February 17, 1912, as part of the “Children’s Exodus,” 35 children of striking immigrant workers were sent to Barre, Vermont, to lessen the burden on their families in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The children were met with three brass bands and a large crowd, and taken into the homes of sympathizers of their parents’ labor strike. Barre’s support of the strike and the children’s visit further cemented the town’s reputation as a center of labor activism and a place of strong community ties. We Want Our Bread and Roses celebrates the lasting legacy of the Italian immigrants’ sacrifices to feed, clothe, and house 35 children in solidarity with their Lawrence, Massachusetts labor union counterparts.