How Minnesota's history of protest informs this moment

Even before a third federal immigration officer-involved shooting in Minneapolis left 37-year-old Alex Pretti dead, U.S. Vice-President JD Vance remarked upon how that city was different.

On Thursday, while making a visit to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Vance wondered aloud why there didn't seem to be the "same level of chaos" in other cities that have seen crackdowns by immigration law enforcement officers.

"Maybe the problem is unique to Minneapolis," Vance said, who also urged local officials to co-operate with federal immigration enforcement.

Part of the answer, perhaps, lies in Minnesota's robust history of protest going back to the 1890s, and the pivotal moments the twin cities played in labour and civil rights movements.

Take for example, the brutal Teamsters strike in which two protesters lost their lives in a hail of bullets on July 20, 1934, a day which became known as Bloody Friday and eventually led to Congress passing the National Labor Relations Act a year later.

Local historians see echoes of the past in what is playing out in their streets now.

"Tragically, there is quite a parallel," said Peter Rachleff, a retired labour history professor in St. Paul.

"It certainly seems as if we're in a historical moment right now where the repercussions of what's happening … are similar in their consequences," he said.

Minnesota's pro-labour roots were evident Friday as 20,000 braved extreme cold warnings to march against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), yelling, "Get up! Get down! Minneapolis is a union town." 

Those roots go at least as far back as the Great Northern Railroad Strike of 1894 where Minnesota was ground zero for a successful 18-day labour action which reversed months of consecutive wage cuts, Rachleff said.

That led to a nationwide railroad boycott known as the Pullman strike, Rachleff said, and ultimately led to establishment of Labor Day signed into law by President Grover Cleveland in the fall of 1894 as a national U.S. holiday.

In May 1934, Minneapolis — a major trucking distribution centre for the midwest at the time — was brought to a near standstill in May when truckers walked off the job demanding fairer wages and working hours.

That July, at the height of the Teamsters strike, police opened fire, wounding 67 strikers and killing two: Henry Ness and John Belor. 

"Those deaths marked a turning point," said Chantel Rodrigeuz, the Minnesota Historical Society's senior public historian.