Albert Parsons
Albert Parsons | |
|---|---|
| Born | Albert Richard Parsons June 20, 1848 Montgomery, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | November 11, 1887 (aged 39) |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Occupation | Printer |
| Political party | Republican (before 1875) Socialist Labor (1877–1887) |
| Spouse | Lucy Parsons |
| Conviction | Conspiracy to commit murder |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | Confederate States of America |
| Branch | Confederate States Army |
| Service years | 1861–1865 |
| Unit | "Lone Star Greys" (irregular) 12th Texas Cavalry Regiment |
Albert Richard Parsons (June 20, 1848 – November 11, 1887) was an American left-wing newspaper editor, orator, and labor activist. As a teenager, he served in the military force of the Confederate States of America in Texas, during the American Civil War. After the war, he settled in there, and became an activist for the rights of the formerly enslaved, and later a Republican official during Reconstruction. With his wife Lucy Parsons, he then moved to Chicago in 1873 and worked in newspapers. There he became interested in the rights of workers. In 1884, he began editing The Alarm newspaper. In 1887, Parsons was one of four Chicago radical leaders controversially convicted of conspiracy and hanged following a bomb attack on police remembered as the Haymarket affair.