Labor Day—the last holiday of summer. It is a time to leave work behind and hold one last backyard barbecue, or head north for a last camping trip, or walk with Michigan’s governor across the Mackinac Bridge. For most people, Labor Day is simply the last long weekend before Thanksgiving. For Michigan’s union members, it is a century-old celebration of the contributions that working people—carpenters, electricians, autoworkers, teachers, nurses, truck drivers and many others—have made toward building modern America. In 1894 President Grover Cleveland created Labor Day by signing federal legislation declaring the first Monday in September a national holiday. Yet the origins of Labor Day predate his action by many years. As the number of trade unions grew in America during the mid- to late-nineteenth century, their members began to hold periodic parades, rallies, picnics and other events to demonstrate the talents and accomplishments of American workers. For more than one hundred years, Michiganians have participated in Labor Day parades and other celebrations. One of the first Michigan labor parades took place on July 4, 1865, when more than four thousand union members—on their way to a picnic—marched down Detroit’s Woodward Avenue, carrying banners, tools and other symbols of their trades. By the turn of the twentieth century, similar demonstrations were held in urban centers across the state.

The origins of the Labor Day holiday cannot be traced to a single event. Since the nineteenth century, labor activists in Europe and elsewhere have recognized the first of May as a day to celebrate the role of labor unions and workers in society. In America, historians have often credited Peter J. McGuire, founder and first president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners union, as the creator of a holiday to celebrate the goals and skills of the labor movement. His idea led to what is often considered the nation’s first Labor Day parade, on September 5, 1882, when thirty thousand tradespeople marched in New York City. There is also evidence that Matthew Maguire, secretary of a machinists and blacksmiths local union, first brought the idea of Labor Day before the New York Central Labor Union before McGuire raised the issue with the same organization later that year. Two other states also lay claim to the holiday’s founding. A large labor parade was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in June 1882 and Rhode Island hosted a labor celebration on August 23, 1882.

By the twentieth century, Labor Day parades and picnics occurred regularly in many Michigan cities. Union members marched in Neguanee, Sault Ste. Marie, Grand Rapids, Detroit and Lansing to name a few. In the late 1940s, after unions experienced tremendous, unprecedented growth during the Depression and World War II, there was also an increase in Labor Day celebrations throughout the state. The largest Michigan celebration was Detroit’s Labor Day parade. In its heyday the parade was a huge spectacle, involving hundreds of thousands of marchers and spectators. It was an event that attracted presidents of the United States such as Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson, as well as presidential hopefuls such as U.S. senators John Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson. For many years, America’s premier union town was the place to be on Labor Day.

During the 1960s and 1970s—tough times for many unions in America—most formal Labor Day celebrations in Michigan began to disappear. Even the storied Detroit parade disappeared for a decade until it was revived in 1980. Today, thousands of people still march in the city’s Labor Day parade and attend Labor Fest in downtown Detroit after the parade. But this is one of only a handful of major cele-brations still held on the first Monday in September. The photographs on the following pages provide a glimpse into Labor Days past in Michigan. From furniture builders in Grand Rapids and miners in Marquette, to autoworkers and cigar makers in Detroit, this was a time to celebrate the rich heritage of the workers who built the state and the nation.