You probably associate Labor Day with sales, family barbecues, and the unofficial end of summer.
For most Americans, the long weekend is a much-needed opportunity to reconnect with friends and family and provides one last hurray before the onset of fall.
But the Monday holiday has a much deeper meaning, rooted in the 19th century struggle for fair working conditions. Labor Day was originally designed to honor workers as part of the American organized labor movement.
Labor Day was first celebrated unofficially by labor activists and individual states in the late 1800s, according to the US Department of Labor. New York was the first state to introduce a bill recognizing Labor Day, but Oregon was the first to actually codify it into law in 1887. Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York had followed suit until the end of 1887.
Joshua Freeman, a labor historian and professor emeritus at the City University of New York, tells CNN that the strike developed as unions were starting to get stronger again after the Depression of the 1870s.
In New York City, two events converged that helped shape Labor Day, Freeman says. First, the now-defunct Central Labor Union was formed as an “umbrella body” for trade unions between trades and ethnic groups. In addition, the Knights of Labor, then the largest national labor convention, held a convention in the city, complete with a large parade. But the parade fell on a Tuesday in early September – and many workers were unable to attend.
The conference was a huge success, and unions across the country began organizing their own labor holidays in early September, usually on the first Monday of the month.
At first, “it was kind of a bold move to join, because you could get fired,” Freedman said. But over time, states began to recognize the holidays, and it became more common for employers to give their employees time off.
It wasn’t until June 28, 1894 that Congress passed a law naming the first day of September a legal holiday called Labor Day.
Freeman says that earlier that year, President Grover Cleveland sent in the military to quell the Pullman railroad strike. Cleveland pushed for legislation to recognize Labor Day just days after the strike ended, in a “gesture toward organized labor,” Freeman said.
At the time Labor Day was formed, unions were fighting for “very specific improvements in their working conditions,” Freeman said. Workers fought hard for the eight-hour workday that most workers enjoy today. And Labor Day was an opportunity for them to come together to discuss their priorities – and for the country to recognize the contribution of workers to society.
But there was also a more radical political thread to the Labor Day celebration, Freeman says. The Knights of Labor were exploring the idea that “what we call the capitalist or industrial system was fundamentally exploitative,” he said. “It introduced a kind of inequalities and disparities, not only in wealth, but also in power. So they wanted to have a greater say in society for the workers.”
“When Labor Day started, there were a lot of voices essentially challenging this emerging system,” Freeman added. Labor leaders at the time advocated alternatives to the “capitalist wage system”, such as collective ownership of companies or socialism.
Over time, the radical politics around Labor Day softened. Around the world, most countries honor workers with a holiday called May Day, celebrated on May 1, which also has its roots in the late 19th century and the struggle for the eight-hour workday. For a long time, Freeman says, Americans celebrated both May Day and Labor Day.
But eventually, Labor Day came to be seen as the more “moderate” of the two holidays, compared to May Day, which was originally established by the Marxist International Socialist Congress.
“By the turn of the 20th century, calls for change in American life have all but disappeared since Labor Day,” Freeman said. “As more and more employers began to give all their workers time off, it became less associated specifically with unions.”
After World War II, Labor Day celebrations had a brief revival, especially in cities such as Detroit and New York. But in the 60s and 70s, they had declined again.
“I think most people just think of it as the end of summer vacation,” Freeman said. “It’s not so much connected to its origins.”
You may have heard the outdated rule that you shouldn’t wear white after Labor Day.
But don’t worry: There aren’t any fashion police out there waiting to see if you’ll be wearing a white shirt in September. And the idea actually has a rather problematic origin.
The rule was one of several 19th-century style customs used to distinguish the upper and middle classes, according to Valerie Steele, fashion historian and director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
“As you got more and more ordinary people, whether middle class or lower middle class, who can have enough money to try to dress fashionably, then more rules are made so that most upper class people can say ‘yeah, but you’re doing it wrong,” Steele told CNN.
White was associated with summer holidays – a privilege that only a few could afford. Labor Day represented the “re-entry” into city life and the retirement of white summer clothes after a summer of leisure for the upper classes, Steele says.
But the arbitrary rule disappeared during the 1970s, Steele says. The ‘Youthquake’ of the 1960s allowed young people to challenge old stylistic norms, including the Labor Day norm.
“It was part of a much larger anti-fashion movement,” Steele said.
