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Labor Day: It Began in San Francisco

From: Dick Meister
Length: 02:21

Despite what the official histories say, Labor Day actually was first observed in San Francisco. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Labor Day: It Began in San Francisco
From: Dick Meister

Default-piece-image-2 Most historians say the first Labor Day was observed in 1894, but it actually began a quarter-century earlier with a grand parade through San Francisco's downtown. The first official Labor Day was proclaimed by the state of California in 1886-- eight years before the Federal Government made it a national holiday and a year before Oregon proclaimed what's generally cited, incorrectly, as the first such state proclamation.

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Piece Description

Most historians say the first Labor Day was observed in 1894, but it actually began a quarter-century earlier with a grand parade through San Francisco's downtown. The first official Labor Day was proclaimed by the state of California in 1886-- eight years before the Federal Government made it a national holiday and a year before Oregon proclaimed what's generally cited, incorrectly, as the first such state proclamation.

Broadcast History

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Transcript

By some reckoning, we’ll b e observing the 111th Labor Day this year, since it was first observed as a national holiday in 1894. But that’s wrong. The observation of Labor Day actually began a quarter-century earlier. In San Francisco, it was – on Feb. 21, 1868.

Brass bands blared. Flags, banners, and torchlights waved high as more than 3,000 union members marched proudly through San Francisco’s downtown streets, led by shipyard workers and carpenters and men from dozens of other construction trades.

The marchers called their parade a “jollification” – the climax of a three-year campaign of strikes and other pressures that had led to establishment of the eight-hour workday as a legal right in California.

Union members in New York City held a similar parades in 1882 that is often cited – erroneously -- as the first Labor Day parade, even though it came fully 14 years after that...
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