When most people think of Labor Day, they picture parades and barbecues. But for Black America, the struggle behind the holiday has always been about more than wages — it’s about dignity.
In 1894, when Congress created Labor Day after the bloody Pullman Strike, Black workers were excluded from most unions and trapped in the lowest-paid jobs.
The Pullman Company famously relied on Black men as sleeping car porters — underpaid, overworked but essential. Decades later, those porters, led by A. Philip Randolph, formed the first major Black union in the U.S. Their organizing not only transformed labor rights but also fueled the civil rights movement.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last campaign was in Memphis, standing with striking Black sanitation workers carrying signs that declared, “I Am a Man.”
This Labor Day, while millions hit the road or fire up the grill, let’s not forget that Black labor helped turn a holiday into a movement.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
