SWOC and the Portsmouth Steel Strike of 1936: Revising Pubic History in the Digital Age

Over the last few years, Dr. Feight and his students have developed SciotoHistorical.org, a series of virtual historical markers along the Scioto River near Portsmouth, Ohio, that fills gaps left by existing monuments and public history exhibits. While the murals of steel mills are mostly devoid of workers, the Scioto Historical smartphone app tells the story of the 1936 steel strike in Portsmouth, which occurred at the birth of the CIO and its Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC). The strike came at a unique time in labor history: the last days of the old Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers, and the beginning of SWOC. Exploring it tells us much about the role of local workers’ movements in the broader landscape of labor history. The strike settlement appears to have been a lost for the workers, but a powerful signal of a new age to the steel companies. The Scioto Historical app takes visitors to important locations in the strike’s history and tells them what happened