Newsboys and Newsgirl getting afternoon papers in New York City
On July 18, 1899, newspaper boys in Long Island City, Queens, discovered that a supplier was short-changing the bundles of newspapers that the boys had to buy upfront from distribution centers before selling them off on the streets.
In retaliation, they overturned his cart, ran him out of town, and destroyed or stole all his papers. Word quickly spread to Manhattan, where newsboys were already upset over the high prices they had to pay per bundle of papers from publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.
The next day, thousands of newsies gathered in City Hall Park to form a union and elected 18-year-old Louis “Kid Blink” Baletti as their president.
Then, they called for a city-wide strike until the price of papers for newsies was lowered — and against all odds, the boys won.
