Labor Day is not just one more chance for soaking up the dwindling days of summertime fun, one history professor at Chatham University said.

Dr. Lou Martin, associate professor of history, said there were initially two ideas behind Labor Day.

”The first was to give working people a day of rest at a time when many people were working 12 hour shifts in the steel industry, sometimes seven days a week,” he said. “The second idea was to showcase the strength and the unity of the labor movement.”

Martin went on to say individuals often showcased a parade during the holiday of rest.

Similarly, in an article with The Herald Dispatch in 1985, staff reporter Margaret Bernstein said, “It’s a largely forgotten fact that on June 28, 1894, Congress bowed to the wishes of the Knights of Labor union and passed a bill,” which marked the first official Labor Day. 

The Knights of Labor union paraded the streets of New York City and were granted their wishes for their holiday. 

From that day forward, the first Monday in September is a legal holiday in which government offices and nearly all businesses close their doors for the day.

In the early years of Labor Day, Martin said people dedicated most of their days to working with little time for anything else, leading to unions fighting against 10 to 12 hour work days. 

“Their slogan was eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep and eight hours for what you will,” he said. “They thought this demand would transform the lives of working people more than any other demand at the time.” 

Now, on this day off of work, most look forward to partaking in cookouts, parades or simply a day of rest—something that historically has looked different.

“During this eight hour movement, labor unions began to have parades with banners said variations of wanting an eight hour day,” Martin said. 

Likewise, these labor unions would mark what union they were on their banners for the  parade as a show of their support for the movement, Martin said.

“They would march through thoroughfares in Wheeling, Huntington, Pittsburgh and Chicago,” he said. “All across the country, they marched to show the strength of the labor movement.”

As America spends this day to honor its workforce, the holiday continues to be a celebration of the hard work of people across the nation, and it even gives Marshall University the day off.

Kaitlyn Fleming can be contacted at [email protected].