Historical Marker

"Bloody Monday" and American (Know-Nothing) Party

Historical marker location:

Louisville, Kentucky

( 1011 West Main St., Louisville)

Election day, Aug. 6, 1855, known as Bloody Monday due to riots led by "Know-Nothing" mobs. This political party was anti-Catholic and nativist. Attacks on German immigrants east of downtown and Irish in the west caused at least 22 deaths, arson, and looting. Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption & St. Martin's Church were threatened with destruction.

Reverse

This party feared that Catholic immigrants from Germany and Ireland threatened Protestanism and democracy. By 1854, the party claimed a million members nationwide and led Jefferson Co. govt. They split over slavery and by the end of the Civil War they had vanished from politics in Louisville and Jefferson Co.