Hard Hat Riot

The Hard Hat Riot occurred on May 8, 1970 in New York City. It started around noon when about 200 construction workers mobilized by the New York State AFL-CIO attacked some 1,000 college and high school students and others who were protesting the May 4th Kent State shootings, the Vietnam War, and the April 30th announcement by President Richard Nixon of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. The Hard Hat Riot, breaking out first near the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street in Lower Manhattan, soon spilled into New York City Hall, and lasted approximately two hours. More than 70 people, including four policemen, were injured on what became known as "Bloody Friday". Six people were arrested.

On May 4, 1970, thirteen students were shot, four of them fatally, at Kent State University in Ohio during a protest of US involvement in the Vietnam War and U.S. incursions into Cambodia. As a show of sympathy for the dead students, then-Republican Mayor of New York City John Lindsay ordered all flags at New York City Hall to be flown at half-staff the same day.

The U.S. labor movement was deeply divided over support for President Richard Nixon's Vietnam War policy. AFL-CIO President George Meany and most labor leaders in the United States were vehemently anti-communist and strongly supported US military involvement in Southeast Asia. But by 1970, union members were divided in their support for the war.