Martin Duberman’s “Haymarket” is a stirring novel about the tragic post-Civil War love affair between labor and civil rights activists Lucy and Albert Parsons.

The passion for social justice that brought them together ultimately cost Albert his life. The former Confederate soldier embraced the struggle for African American rights with Lucy, whose heritage was Native American, Latino and Black.

Together they fought to build unions and a workers’ political party when protesting workers were often shot or jailed. On May 1, 1886, labor paralyzed the nation with a massive general strike to protest widespread unemployment and demand the 8-hour day. Albert and Lucy helped organize the huge turnout in Chicago. Two days later, a rally was set for Haymarket Square to support strikers at McCormick Harvester Co.

Albert and Lucy arrived late and left the demonstration before the police arrived. As the police broke up the still peaceful rally, a bomb went off, killing one police officer and injuring others.

In the anti-union hysteria that followed, seven anarchists, socialists and unionists, including Albert, were condemned to death — despite the lack of any evidence tying them to the crime. Chicago police denied Lucy permission to see Albert one last time before he was hanged.

Duberman backgrounds the stories of the two labor heroes with a vivid snapshot of the economic and racial conditions in the U.S. from the 1870s to the birth of May Day in 1886. His re-creation of the beginnings of the American labor movement highlights the internal dialogues over strategy — including the use of violence for self-defense, the role of union political activity and the question of working within the capitalist system or trying to replace it.

The $24.95 book is available to members in the DC 37 Education Fund Library, Room 211.

Ms. Parsons remains controversial, with the Chicago police union protesting naming a park after the woman described by a 19th century official as “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.”

— Ken Nash