Labor Day

Bella Yancey

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Everyone views Labor Day as only a three-day weekend but, what is the true meaning behind it? The history of Labor Day weekend is rooted in the 19th-century fight about fair working conditions. Labor activists advocated for a federal holiday to recognize the numerous contributions workers made to show the strength, prosperity, and well-being of the United States This federal holiday would allow workers to get together and demand better working conditions. As the trade union and labor movements grew in the late nineteenth century, trade unionists proposed that a day be set aside to celebrate labor. In New York City, two events converged in New York City that helped shape Labor Day. To begin, Central Labor Union was established as an "umbrella body" for unions from different trades and ethnic groups. Then the Knights of Labor, the country's largest labor organization at the time, held a convention in the city complete with a big parade. However, the parade occurred on a Tuesday in early September, and many workers were unable to attend. The convention was a big success, and from the beginning of September, unions all over the country began hosting their labor holidays, typically on the first Monday of September. It was then observed unofficially by labor activists and individual states in the late 1800s. Although New York was the first state to introduce legislation to recognize Labor Day, Oregon was the first to codify it into law in 1887. It was not until June 28, 1894, that Congress passed an act naming the first Monday of September a legal holiday called Labor Day.