Labor Day: A day for celebrating working people
Monday is Labor Day where U.S. workers celebrate achievements accomplished that grew out of a 19th century labor movement.
It is one of five federal holidays that fall on a Monday, the others being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, and Columbus Day. The day provides U.S. citizens a three-day weekend and is considered the unofficial end of summer.
One may wonder why we have a Labor Day.
According to the Department of Labor, in looking at the history of Labor Day, we go back to the Industrial Revolution, prior to 1882 when labor laws primarily did not exist.
In the early 1880’s, many Americans were working 12-hour days, seven days a week and even children as young as five years were working in factories, mines and other hard jobs.
Somewhat disgruntled by with what was considered unfair treatment, the first Labor Day took place on Sept. 5, 1882, when about 10,000 union members took an unpaid day and marched in a parade in New York City. It was considered the first Labor Day parade in history.
There is a discrepancy as to who gets credit for organizing the first Labor Day parade and although their names are similar sounding, two different men, Matthew Maguire and Peter McGuire, are credited for the first parade event.
The parade became the impetus for Labor Day and within the next few years, the idea of celebrating a workingman’s holiday on the first Monday in September began to take hold in other industrial areas of the country.
On May, 4 1886, an event known as the “Haymarket Riot” took place and led to further creation of making Labor Day a federal holiday.
The event happened when workers held a peaceful labor protest in Haymarket Square in Chicago.
At this time various states began to implement Labor Day as a holiday and Oregon became the first to do so.
However, the protest turned violent when police responded after someone threw a bomb at the police, it resulted in seven police officers and four others being killed.
Moving into the early 1890’s and other states declaring Labor Day as a holiday as well as the violence that occurred following the Pullman railroad strike, U.S. Congress and President Grover Cleveland started promoting the day to be celebrated as a national holiday.
On June 28, 1894, Labor Day was declared a federal legal holiday.
held, but the majority of American workers are able to enjoy a three-day weekend of relaxation and looking forward to moving into the fall time of the year.