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May Day or International Worker’s Day is celebrated on May 1st in most countries around the world. The holiday is less popular in the United States but no less important to immigrant activist groups nationwide who’ve begun using this day to demand equal rights for immigrant workers. May Day was first organized in 1886 by German immigrants, anarchists and labor federations to demand the work day be shortened to eight hours. Unfortunately for the movement, a few days after May 1st, a march inspired by that first successful one ended in a riot. That riot is known in history as the Haymarket Massacre of 1886. The labor movement dissolved as a result and May Day was never officially recognized in the United States. Tulane University professor Todd Michney tells the story of what happened on those eventful first days of May.
