Labor Day came after two major events in the labor movement; one a celebration and the other a fiery tragedy. All while primary workers were going on strike and demanding protections, Black laborers were often faced with the unfortunate choice of becoming strike breakers in an effort to earn money at a time when wages remained incredibly low for Black Americans. In a sense, Perkins said, Black laborers did not benefit much from the labor movement, but they were still a huge part of the history of how things all came about.

The fight for more just employment laws continues today.

“I think Labor Day is an opportunity to commemorate that long history but also learn from that history and take lessons from the past and be able to apply it to what we are facing today in terms of worker’ rights, workers’ protections and just kind of general labor struggles,” Perkins said. “Look at what’s transpiring now and you see people of different races, but particularly working-class folk, Black, brown and others, really ratcheting up their activities around labor, around working conditions, better pay and all of these different things.”

Perkins likened Black people’s celebration of Labor Day to Juneteenth.

“I think Labor Day, in this respect, similar to Juneteenth where the purpose of the holiday is kind of some of the earliest iterations of it, African Americans got together and they were able to learn of the past, particularly the history of slavery, and then take those stories and use them as a lesson but also as an inspiration for the future,” he said. “I think African Americans can do the same thing with Labor Day.”

American Slavery

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