The Black history of Labor Day: How Black workers shaped the labor movement
TheGrio...
Black labor has powered America for generations, helping shape the labor movement even as unions and lawmakers often left Black workers out.
Many people view Labor Day as a final summer celebration, filled with cookouts, parties, and a well-deserved extra day off to enjoy the last few warm rays of sunshine before fall arrives. However, this holiday also honors the contributions of American workers. Now, most history books highlight the Pullman Strike of 1894 as a key event that led to the establishment of Labor Day, but Black Americans played a significant role in this movement, a fact often overlooked.
Though U.S. legislators recognized Labor Day as a federal holiday in 1894 as “an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers,” the demand for the holiday stemmed from labor activists and workers fighting for equal wages. With this understanding, some historians argue that Black women laid the groundwork for mobilization among the working class.
In 1881, at a time when a majority of African American women worked as domestic servants and washerwomen, a group of 20 women formed their own union in Atlanta. The Washing Society was born out of frustration with the unfair working conditions these women often faced. Forced to work long hours Monday through Saturday, care for their own families, make $4 to $8 a month, and often underpaid or not paid at all, the women of the Washing Society hosted one of the largest-ever strikes by African Americans that lasted weeks. The union, which ultimately grew to include 3,000 people, withheld work until officials agreed to a consistent $ 1-per-dozen rate for clothes. After weeks of threats of fines and arrest, the washerwomen reached an agreement with city officials who met their demands, and inspired other working communities to demand higher wages.
A year later, in New York, workers held the earliest documented Labor Day celebrations, organized by New York City’s Central Labor Union. However, at that time, Black workers were largely excluded from labor unions and organizations, shutting them out of many of these landmark events, including the violent Pullman worker strike of May 1894 in Chicago, which led Congress and President Grover Cleveland to pass a bill making Labor Day a federal holiday a month later.
The Pullman strike began after the Pullman Palace Car Company laid off thousands of workers and significantly reduced employee wages. However, as white Pullman workers protested for fair wages, their Black co-workers were forced to continue working at significantly lower wages than their white counterparts.
Following the Civil War, Chicago businessman George Pullman deliberately hired thousands of Black Americans, including formerly enslaved people, to work as porters serving white travelers on his cross-country trains. Despite working long hours for low wages and facing discrimination from passengers and white employees, the Black porters at Pullman were excluded from the 1894 Pullman Strike organized by the American Railway Union, which barred Black workers’ membership, thus forcing them to work through the strikes and pick up for the absence of other workers. Despite being a job predominantly held by Black workers at the company, it wasn’t until 1925 that Black Pullman porters were able to form their own union, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, founded by A. Philip Randolph.
However, Black workers would continue to face inequalities across the country. In 1938, Congress enacted the Fair Labor Standards Act, introducing a minimum wage, overtime pay for hours worked above 40 in a workweek, and limitations on child labor. But the bill notably excluded agricultural and domestic workers, roles that were predominantly held by Black communities at the time. It was not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that legislators made it illegal for companies to discriminate against Black employees, and even still in the decades to follow, Black communities faced micro and macro aggressions in the workplace.
From the Black Americans whose labor built the US economy and the White House to the Black women-led Washing Society in Atlanta to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters to the thousands of Black “Rosies” who helped fight in World War II, Black labor has and continues to drive America forward. And while policies, unions, and institutions often fail to acknowledge that, this Labor Day, take a moment to acknowledge the work our Black ancestors did and honor the fact that Black communities’ ability to even be included in the federal holiday is a result of their work.