More than a hundred years later during the Movement for Black Lives, it speaks to the violent realities experienced by Black people every day. It was restored in 2019 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. The Killing Floor, which debuted in 1984, is also an exposition of the fictitious American Dream, but through the lens of race.
You’ve probably heard of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, a classic novel that exposed the evils of capitalism and exploitation of workers in the meatpacking industry. The Killing Floor is a moving recognition of workers and the histories of the overlooked.