September 7, 2020
The Unofficial End of Summer is here and the Gazette would like to once again say thank you to all of the men and women who’ve been working so hard to keep our city going during the pandemic. Happy Labor Day to each and every one of you!
According to an item on VOA, Labor Day is observed in September here rather than in May like everywhere else. This is because there was a famous workers’ demonstration in Chicago in May of 1886. Workers were demanding something many of us take for granted: the 8 hour workday.
A bomb went off and several people were killed including police and protesters. The event became known as the Haymarket Riot and is commemorated annually by Labor around the world. President Grover Cleveland created the September holiday we call Labor Day in order to distance it from the May Day holiday observed elsewhere.
We found a short documentary on Youtube about the Haymarket Riot that you might enjoy. The picture up above and the Mass-Meeting poster are frames from this video by Evelyn Xiao.