Labor Day does n’t just mark the end of summer , or the first of a new schoolhouse twelvemonth . At least it should n’t . Thisfederal holiday , created in 1894 and set on the first Monday in September , is really a celebration of America ’s workers . It lionize the end of horrid practices such as child lying-in , 12 - hour workdays and unsafe working conditions . And it extol the American proletarian who help create today ’s good , more just piece of work environment .
Many women were leaders in the other labor - rights movement , as discussed in an episode of the podcastStuff Mom Never separate You . In " The Women of the Labor Movement , " cobalt - hosts Emilie Aries and Bridget Todd spotlighted one of America ’s first female , minority activists , Lucy Gonzales Parsons .
Born in Texas in the 1850s , Parsonswas of Mexican , Native American and African - American descent , though she abnegate her African - American heritage in all likelihood because of the brutal racial discrimination blacks experienced at the time . She married Albert Parsons , a snowy humanity , although there were laws banning mixed married couple back then . The two fled to Chicago in the 1870s , after Albert Parsons was shot in the peg and threaten with lynching while helping contraband citizen register to vote .
Once in Chicago , the couple became involved in the Socialist Labor Party , and then syndicalist movements , where violence was deemed satisfactory — almost necessary — to fight shabbiness . Talcott Parsons , a gifted speaker and author , used her countersign to head fights against African - American lynchings , the sharecrop farmer system , 12 - 60 minutes workdays and other issuance . Massive worker strikes get spreading across the nation . Then tragedy strike .
Employees at Chicago ’s McCormick Harvest Works went on strike , agitating for an eight - minute workday . During the ten-strike , police shoot into the unarmed crowd , killing four and injure many . Workers assembled peacefully in the city ’s Haymarket Square the next day to digest the strikers , when someone lobbed a dud into the gang , killing a law policeman .
Although no one get laid who did it , police decided to hunt down all known local activist . Albert Parsons , who was n’t even at Haymarket Square , was taken into detention and hang . When Lucy went to say goodbye to her married man , she was arrested , strip naked and left in a jail electric cell until her husband ’s execution was over . However , she was never charged for conspiracy in the bombing , deemed unequal to of violence since she was female .
minister skin to earn a living and care for her two fry after her husband ’s execution . Yet she never stopped fighting for workers ' rights . One Chicago official pronounced her " more dangerous than a thousand rioters . " She died at age 89 in a star sign fire in 1942 . law confiscate her writings and books from her burn - down theatre and never returned them .
Many militant like Parsons devoted their life history to well workings conditions for all . Yet today , says Bridget , " We do n’t cherish the eight - hour workday . We do n’t cherish what Lucy Parsons struggle for … We do n’t call up of it as cherished . And masses lost their life for it . "
Emilie concur , noting it ’s ironic that today , Americans work longer and unvoiced of their own pact , as fellowship lauds those who do so . One example : Workers in the U.S. now voluntarily leave a week ’s Charles Frederick Worth of holiday on the mesa each year .
Lucy Parsons would not be well-chosen .
