Who were the knights of labor?
They were a Labor Organization akin to the Modern A.F.L but were founded earlier. the Knights of Labor were organized by a man named Terence Powderly the odd name is why I remember them. they were pretty much out of existence by the time of the Gay Nineties ( l890″s) and the rise of A.F.L. unions. = largely headed up by Samuel Gompers. The CIO did not exist prior to l934 and was the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Most, not all CIO-based unions have the word United in the title: United mine workers, for example, United Auto Workers, United Federation of Teachers, for example, the word United tended to indicate a CIO as opposed to AFL union. The two Labor organizations merged around I seem to recall (from history books in school) about l947 and some unions are noted- AFL-CIO. but there were and are formal divisions between the two organizations, as described above. the Knights of Labor is long-since extinct- since about maybe l892, superseded by the AF of L.