The Thibodaux massacre in Louisiana in November 1887 was part of a violent, widespread labor dispute. A racial attack was mounted by local white paramilitary organized by authorities. it followed a three-week strike by an estimated 10,000 workers against sugar cane plantations in four parishes in the critical harvest season. The strike was the largest in the industry and the first conducted by a formal labor organization, the Knights of Labor. At planters' requests, the state sent in militia to protect strikebreakers, and work resumed on some plantations. Black workers and their families were evicted from plantations in Lafourche Parish and retreated to Thibodaux.