On this Monday, The first day of September 2025, Americans all across the country are taking a day off from work to celebrate our national holiday, "Labor Day". Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements in the United States.In the late 1800s during the Industrail Era, workers faced grueling 12-hour days, seven-day weeks, and unsafe conditions. Even children labored in factories and mines.Labor unions began pushing for better wages, hours, and safety. Strikes and protests—like the violent Pullman Strike of 1894—highlighted the urgency for reform. P. J. McGuire, Vice President of the American Federation of Labor, is frequently credited as the father of Labor Day in the United States.
Labor Day is more than just a long weekend or the unofficial end of summer—it’s a tribute to the grit, struggle, and triumph of American workers.The first Labor Day parade in New York City was held on September 5, 1882, organized by the city's Central Labor Union, thousands marched. The parade began at City Hall, passed a reviewing stand in Union Square, and concluded with a picnic, concert, and speeches at Wendel's Elm Park. This event, featuring workers from various trades with banners like "NO MONEY MONOPOLY," was a significant public display of solidarity that inspired the creation of a national holiday in 1894.
This tradition still goes on today in New York City with the West Indian Day Parade or the "Labor Day" parade, thats held in Brooklyn, NY. Today, the Labor Day parade attracts on average between one and three million participants.The spectators and participators watch and follow the parade on its route along Eastern Parkway. Some of the West Indian or Caribbean islands represented in the parade include Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Barbados, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and Grenada, along with some Afro-Panamanians and mainland Caribbean countries such as Guyana, Suriname, and Belize.
The Labor Day/West Indian Day Parade in NYC is a tribute to the carribean diaspora, rooted in afro-carribean carnival traditions. It's the culmination of NY Caribbean Carnival Week, organized by the West Indian American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA). The night before the parade the entire city celebrates Jouvert, a pre-dawn street party (starts ~6 a.m.) celebrating freedom from slavery with paint, powder, and ancestral music.
The tradition of honoring the people who put blood, sweat, and tears, into the foundation and building of this Nation, is one that is very sacred..and the West Indian Day Parade is a refelction of this truth. Jessie Waddell and some of her West Indian friends started the Carnival in Harlem in Upper Manhattan, New York City, in the 1930s. They staged costume parties in large, enclosed places such as the Savoy, Renaissance and Audubon Ballrooms due to the cold wintry weather of February.This is the usual time for the pre-Lenten celebrations of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival and other related celebrations around the world. However, because of the very nature of Carnival, and the need to parade in costume to music, indoor confinement did not work well. The parade eventually emerged into the streets of Harlem but then in 1964 their permit was revoked and they moved the Labor Day parade to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY where it remains today.
On this National holiday, as we all sit home taking a break from work, to recognize and honor, the contributions of laborers in this country. Laborers that contributed to the development of this nation, it would be dishonest of me not to beg the question? Who are the laborers getting all the credit?
Another thing that we are experiencing currently in this nation, is an unrelenting, anti-intellectual- narrative about how being American is all about keeping others from coming to this country and making it great. Girl Cave tribe, what are your thoughts? What does it mean to be an American on Labor Day? What does labor Day represent to you? What are you celebrating today, who are you honoring?
Via source. Photo credit: A 1948 view of the West Indian Day Parade when it was located in Harlem and Haitian Mas Group Not Allowed on Parkway
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