Top of page

The First Monday of September

Share this post:

Guest blogger today is business reference librarian Ellen Terrell

Labor Day parade, Main St., Buffalo, N.Y. (ca1910)

Many Americans may think Labor Day as the end of summer or a day of rest, parades, picnics, or store sales. Labor Day is so much more.

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 at the behest of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union pushed other organizations to follow and by 1894 23 other states had adopted the holiday.* In 1894 Eugene V. Debs led members of the American Railway Union on strike in what is known as the Pullman strike.  This strike had major economic implications and soon President Grover Cleveland declared it a federal crime and deployed troops to break it up. Violence erupted, and two men were killed. As a way to calm tensions after the death strike, on June 28, 1894 Labor Day as a legal holiday on the first Monday of September was approved. **

Statutes at Large June 28, 1894: Making Labor Day a Legal Holiday

There are a number of books on Labor Day and the history of labor in the United States while the Library’s Manuscript Reading Room has President Cleveland’s papers. Also, the National Archives has a nice online photographic exhibit called The Way We Worked that documents the clothing, locales, conditions, and conflict in our workplaces.

* United States Department of Labor: History of Labor Day

**PBS: Origins of Labor Day

Comments (5)

  1. Hurrah for Labor and Labor Day.

    May they both last into eternity.

  2. Yay Labor day

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.